355 
577 


The  New 


Horticulture 


377 


COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE 
DAVIS,  CALIFORNIA 


At  n  /  1 


L 


;  ( 


THE  NEW  HORTICULTURE 


1 


H.   M.   STRINGFELLOW 


THE  NEW 
HORTICULTURE 


BY 

//.   M   STRINGFELLOU/ 


GALVESTON,   TEXAS 
PUBLISHED   BY    THE   AUTHOR 

1896 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LIBRARY 

COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE 
DAVIS 


COPYRIGHTED  BY 

H.   M.    STRINGFEIVL,OW 

1806 


)t.  flMeasant  iprtnterv; 

iade  by  J.  Horace  McFarland  Company 
Harrisburg,  Pa. 


PREFACE. 


^AEVERAL  months  ago  I  contributed  to  Farm  and 
\^  Ranch,  Dallas,  Texas,  the  fruit-growers'  organ 
for  the  Southwest,  four  articles  on  the  best 
form  of  tree  for  transplanting,  as  well  as  the  best 
preparation  of  the  ground  and  after-treatment  of  the 
orchard.  To  these  was  added  an  inquiry  into  the 
causes  and  prevention  of  pear  and  apple  blight. 
Having  received  quite  a  number  of  requests  to  em- 
body the  whole  in  print,  I  concluded  to  do  so,  and 
to  add  in  a  narrative  sort  of  way  some  pages  from 
my  own  personal  experience  of  thirty  years  in  fruit 
and  vegetable  growing,  the  whole  of  which  seems  to 
contain  enough  new  points  of  interest  to  justify  the 
title  of  "The  New  Horticulture,"  and  to  warrant 
laying  them  before  my  fellow  fruit-growers.  While 
directly  applicable,  in  some  of  the  details  and  varie- 
ties, to  the  far  South  only,  many  of  the  suggestions 
are  of  general  interest  all  over  the  country.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  some  of  them  will  meet  with  decided 
opposition,  but  I  feel  confident  that  a  fair  trial  will 
in  the  end  prove  me  right  in  the  main.  My  object 
has  been  to  show  that  some  of  the  principles  of  hor- 
ticulture to-day  are  wrong,  and  also  to  suggest  a 
more  natural,  cheaper  and  better  way  to  grow  good 
fruit  than  the  laborious  and  expensive  methods  now 
in  use.  While  in  the  analysis  of  manures  and  de- 
struction of  insects  we  have  made  good  progress, 


6871.8 


PREFACE. 


horticulture  has  not  kept  up  in  the  procession  with 
the  other  arts  and  sciences,  and  a  little  radical  shak- 
ing up  will  at  least  start  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and 
experiment. 

And  now,  before  entering  upon  my  task,  I  wish 
to  disclaim  any  pretensions  to  a  set  treatise  in  reg- 
ular form.  In  view  of  the  general  information  and 
the  great  number  of  excellent  works  on  the  subject, 
it  occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  more  interesting 
to  embody  the  facts,  endorsements  of  them,  and 
my  own  observations,  in  the  form  of  a  rambling  sort 
of  personal  history,  and  to  do  that  it  has  been  most 
convenient  to  use  very  often  the  personal  pronoun 
in  the  first  person,  for  which  I  hope  my  readers 
will  excuse  me. 

H.  M.  S. 

GALVESTON,  TEXAS, 
August  /,  1896. 


CONTENTS. 


Part  L 

CHAPTER  I.                                      PAGE 
How  I   BECAME  A  HORTICULTURIST 13 

CHAPTER  II. 
EARLY  EXPERIENCES  AND  SEED-BEDS 16 

CHAPTER  III. 
FERTILIZERS — COTTON-SEED  MEAL 21 

CHAPTER  IV. 
WINTER  AND  EARLY  SPRING  CULTIVATION 31 

CHAPTER  V. 
CABBAGE 35 

CHAPTER  VI. 
CAULIFLOWER 38 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  TOMATO 41 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  ONION 46 

CHAPTER  IX. 
MELONS  AND  CUCUMBERS 49 


8  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

CHAPTER  X.                                      PAGE 
THE   POTATO 53 

CHAPTER  XI. 
CELERY 56 

CHAPTER  XII. 
LETTUCE 57 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
ASPARAGUS 58 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Cow  PEAS  AND  OTHER  VEGETABLES  ....  ..62 


Part  II. 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  NEW    DISPENSATION 67 

CHAPTER  II. 
OLD   PRIMITIVE    ORCHARDS 70 

CHAPTER  III. 
How  I   DISCOVERED  CLOSE  ROOT-PRUNING 75 

CHAPTER  IV. 
CLOSE  ROOT-PRUNING 80 

CHAPTER  V. 
ROOT  PRUNING — How  DEMONSTRATED  AT  WASHINGTON.  .  ,90 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER    VI.  PAGE 

RIGHT  AND  WRONG  CLOSE   ROOT-PRUNING  ..............  100 

CHAPTER  VII. 
BEST  TIME  AND  DEPTH  TO  PLANT  .....................  103 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
DEEP  PREPARATION  WRONG  ...................  ,  .......  106 

CHAPTER  IX. 
CULTIVATION  .........................................  in 

CHAPTER  X. 
BLIGHT  .............  .  ................  ................  120 

CHAPTER  XL 
BLIGHT  ..................................  .  ...........  131 

CHAPTER  XII. 
GROWING  TREES  FROM  BEARING  ONES  ..................  141 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
PROPAGATION  BY  CUTTINGS  ..........................  .  .  146 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
WINTER  BUDDING  ........ 


CHAPTER  XV. 
GRAFTING 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

FRUIT -CHANGED    BY    POLLINATION    . 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
HYBRIDISM  BY  GRAFTING  AND  BUDDING 


10  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

CHAPTER  XVIII.  PAGE 

DWARFING  TREES  ON  THEIR  OWN   ROOTS 166 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
WHY  TREES  IN  BOTTOMS  NEVER  DROWN — AERATION 169 

CHAPTER  XX. 
WRAPPING  FRUIT 173 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
GRAPES 176 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
THE  APPLE 181 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE   PEAR 189 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  PLUM 192 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
THE   PEACH 197 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

APRICOTS,  FIGS,  JAPAN  PERSIMMONS  AND  NUTS 199 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
THE  STRAWBERRY  AND  OTHER  BERRIES 202 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
CONCLUSION. ..,..,.. 209 

APPENDIX. 
MORE  LIGHT  FROM  EXPERIENCE 214 


PART  I 


THE  NEW  HORTICULTURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

How  I  became  a  Horticulturist. 

IN  looking  back  over  the  past,  nothing  strikes  one  more 
forcibly  than  the  fact  that  most  of  us  are  literally  crea- 
tures of  circumstance.  The  most  trivial  incidents  often 
break  in  upon  our  plans,  changing  the  whole  course  of  our 
lives.  Never  was  there  a  more  complete  illustration  of 
this  truth  than  the  apparent  accident  which  drew  my  atten- 
tion to  horticulture,  and  finally  resulted  in  developing  a  most 
intense  interest,  where  before  there  was  complete  indiffer- 
ence. It  is  an  old  saying,  that  the  boy  is  father  of  the  man, 
but  in  many  cases,  nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth. 
I  am  sure  I  can,  and  doubtless  many  of  my  readers  can,  recall 
instances  among  their  friends,  where  the  future  man  or  wo- 
man has  turned  out  to  be  absolutely  no  kin  at  all  to  the  boy 
or  girl,  in  all  the  peculiarities  and  traits  that  went  to  form  the 
future  character. 

My  own  is  a  case  in  point,  for  as  a  boy,  and  in  fact  up  to 
a  certain  day  in  April,  1866,  when  a  young  man,  I  had  not 
the  remotest  idea  that  an  ardent  love  for  every  form  of  horti- 
culture was  slumbering  within,  which  needed  but  the  slightest 
spark  to  kindle.  I  cannot  recall  that  the  sight  of  any  orchard, 
garden  or  flower,  in  my  whole  previous  life,  ever  excited  the 
slightest  desire  in  me  to  own  or  grow  one  like  it,  or  in  any 
way  to  work  the  ground,  my  whole  attention  being  entirely 
devoted  to  trading  in  cotton  and  real  estate,  until  the  morn- 
ing alluded  to  in  April.  Being  an  ideal  spring  day,  a  party 
of  us  concluded  to  spend  a  few  hours  fishing  from  the  wharf 
here  in  Galveston,  and,  seeing  a  rusty-looking  old  chap  near 


14  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE 

by  me  drawing  out  some  fine  specimens,  while  I  had  no  suc- 
cess at  all,  with  legs  dangling  over  the  wharf's  edge  I  inched 
along  towards  him  to  try  and  share  his  luck.  The  old  man 
took  it  very  kindly,  and  gave  me  a  pleasant  "good  morning," 
from  which  we  soon  got  well  acquainted,  and  it  needed  but 
little  questioning  to  draw  him  out.  While  proud  of  his  skill  as 
a  fisherman,  by  which  he  then  made  his  living,  he  soon  let  me 
know  that  he  was  originally  cut  out  for  better  things  than 
that.  He  told  how,  many  years  before,  on  the  classic  banks 
of  the  Rhine,  in  a  snug  little  vine-clad  home,  his  eyes  first 
saw  the  light  of  day,  and  how  as  a  boy,  and  then  man,  he 
had  helped  to  terrace  the  rocky  hills,  and  carry  the  earth  from 
below  in  baskets  on  his  back,  to  make  the  beds  where  grew 
the  grapes  that  made  the  sparkling  wines  of  the  Rhine.  At 
first  I  was  much  more  interested  in  fish  than  grapes,  for 
while  I  did  know  they  grew  on  vines,  I  certainly  knew  no 
more,  but  as  the  old  fellow  rambled  on,  he  finally  jumped  in 
his  narrative  clear  over  the  ocean  and  landed  at  Bolivar 
Point,  across  Galveston  Bay,  where  he  went  on  to  tell  how 
he  just  missed  a  fortune  in  grape-growing  by  a  mere  scratch. 
It  seemed  that  after  a  life-time  of  wandering  he  had  saved  up  a 
little  money,  and  bargained  for  a  few  acres  of  land,  but  need- 
ing his  cash  to  buy  his  vines,  had  paid  nothing  on  it.  The 
vines  were  planted  and  growing  finely  in  the  spring  of  '61, 
when,  alas  for  the  old  man's  fortune,  the  war  came  on.  The 
big  Yankee  ships  steamed  up  and  down  the  coast,  and  finally 
into  the  harbor,  and  anchored  quite  near  the  Point.  Now, 
while  the  old  fellow  was  greatly  interested  in  the  grape,  it  was 
not  the  kind  they  cultivate  aboard  a  man-of-war,  so  he  aban- 
doned the  place  and  moved  to  Houston.  When  the  war  ended, 
however,  he  returned  to  look  at  his  vineyard,  but  the  fence 
was  all  down  and  the  cattle  had  trampled  his  poor  vines  to 
death.  Disheartened,  and  having  no  money  to  buy  more,  he 
had  moved  over  to  Galveston  Island  shortly  before,  and  so  it 
happened  we  met  on  that  bright  April  morning.  While  this 
is  the  outline,  he  filled  in  with  many  interesting  incidents, 
and  none  more  so  than  the  fabulous  profits  that  could  be 
made  on  grapes.  I  do  not  remember  now  the  vines  he  put  to 


HOW     I     BECAME     A     HORTICULTURIST.  15 

the  acre,  or  the  pounds  to  a  vine,  or  the  price  per  pound, 
all  on  paper,  like  many  another  fruit  crop,  but  I  do  know 
that  before  he  got  through  with  his  wild,  enthusiastic  ha- 
rangue he  had  me  so  excited  over  grape-growing  that  I  was 
prepared  to  throw  cotton  and  real  estate  to  the  winds  and 
grow  grapes  galore.  And  thus  while  fishing  for  trout  with 
shrimps,  I  was  caught  myself,  with  a  bait  of  grapes.  Little 
did  the  old  man  think  that  day  that,  like  the  Apostles  of 
old,  he  had  turned  out  a  ''fisher  of  men."  And  what,  indeed, 
are  we  all  but  fishermen,  wandering  along  the  stream  of 
life  with  rods  in  hand,  and  hooks  baited  for  each  other  ? 
Whether  it  be  stocks  or  bonds,  cotton  or  corn,  money  or  love, 
we  all  have  baits  out  for  somebody,  in  which  the  hooks  are  as 
carefully  concealed  as  those  in  the  shrimp,  and,  whether  by 
accident  or  design,  somebody  is  always  being  caught. 

Well,  the  time  had  passed  quickly,  though  the  fishing  was 
bad,  and,  after  thanking  the  old  man  for  his  pleasant  chat,  I 
bade  him  good-bye,  and  never  saw  him  again. 

In  our  journey  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  our  paths 
crossed  but  a  single  time,  and  yet  in  those  few  hours  he  had 
completely  changed  the  whole  course  and  future  of  my  life. 
On  my  way  home,  I  stopped  in  the  different  book  stores  to 
hunt  for  lore  on  the  grape,  and  bought  the  only  two  books 
they  had.  These  were  soon  at  my  fingers'  ends,  and  not  sat- 
isfied with  learning  something  about  grapes,  a  desire  sprang 
up  to  know  something  about  all  other  fruit/s  and  flowers  as 
well,  and  everything  I  could  find  was  read.  While  now  com- 
pletely infatuated  with  horticulture  (and  it  is  wonderful  how 
completely  it  does  capture  some  people),  it  is  doubtful  whether 
I  would  ever  have  made  it  a  business,  unless  unfortunate  spec- 
ulations in  cotton  and  real  estate,  just  prior  to  the  storm  and 
yellow  fever  epidemic  of  '67,  had  decided  the  question  for  me. 
Those  events  left  me  with  no  bank  account  against  which  to 
draw,  so  I  concluded  at  once  to  follow  my  inclinations,  and 
draw  on  the  sand  banks  of  Galveston  Island.  Just  how  those 
banks  will  honor  a  draft,  if  properly  indorsed  with  manure  and 
industry,  I  leave  the  old  vegetable  dealers  and  residents  of 
the  city,  who  used  to  visit  my  home  in  the  West  End,  to  say. 


CHAPTER    II. 

Early  Experiences  and  Seed-beds. 

I  WILL  now  give  a  few  details  of  my  first  experiences  in 
gardening  for  profit,  and  will  ever  look  back  to  those 
early  days  as  the  very  happiest  of  my  life.  Imagination, 
with  her  undipped  wings,  ever  bore  me  up,  and  hopes  flut- 
tered around  as  thick  as  moths  over  a  cabbage  patch.  Not 
}^et  had  I  sounded  all  the  mysterious  depths  of  vegetable 
arithmetic,  or  proved  by  the  double  rule  of  three  that  if  one 
lettuce  plant  will  bring  two  cents,  it  does  not  necessarily  fol- 
low that  43,500  on  an  acre  at  one  foot  apart  will  bring  $870. 
The  doubtful  propriety  of  counting  chickens  before  they  are 
hatched,  with  the  consequent  inconveniences  often  resulting 
therefrom,  had  not  yet  impressed  itself  fully  on  my  confiding 
mind.  To  me  the  world  was  a  vast  stomach  of  unlimited 
capacity,  and  my  mission  to  help  fill  it,  by  the  aid  of  a  natural 
and  considerate  disposition  on  the  part  of  all  vegetables  to 
assist,  with  a  minimum  of  effort  on  my  part. 

Soothed  and  sustained  by  these  pleasant  anticipations, 
and  in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  festive  bug  of  high  and  low 
degree,  as  well  as  the  hilarious  moth,  ever  intent  on  combin- 
ing business  with  pleasure,  as  she  flits  from  plant  to  plant,  I 
set  out  in  my  first  attempt  on  two  and  a-half  acres  of  nearly 
pure  sand,  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city  of  Galveston.  This 
area  was  increased  in  a  few  years  to  five  acres,  on  which  I 
soon  had  a  fine  little  orange  grove  coming  on,  as  well  as  a 
small  vineyard  behind  the  friendly  shelter  of  oleander  and 
salt  cedar  trees,  which  kept  off  the  blighting  salt  winds. 
Here,  by  continuous  and  heavy  fertilizing  and  tireless  work, 
stimulated  by  intense  love  for  it,  I  managed,  with  the  high 
prices  then  and  for  many  years  prevailing,  to  make  a  very 
satisfactory  success  of  market-gardening,  even  though  my 
bright  anticipations  were  never  realized.  Starting  absolutely 

(16) 


EARLY  EXPERIENCES  AND   SEED-BEDS.  IJ 

ignorant  of  every  branch  of  horticulture,  and  yet  with  an 
ardent  love  for  it,  I  have  always  believed  that  the  fair  success 
I  have  made  was  more  due  to  that  ignorance  than  anything 
else.  In  those  days  there  were  very  few  market-gardeners  on 
Galveston  Island,  and  those  here  were  exceedingly  jealous 
of  each  other,  so  when  I  started  out  and  went  around  for 
a  little  friendly  information  on  various  points,  I  found  them 
literally  a  lot  of  know-nothings.  This  turned  out  to  be  the 
very  stimulus  needed  to  throw  me  on  my  own  resources,  and 
compelled  me  to  inaugurate  a  thorough  system  of  experiments 
for  myself.  So,  getting  a  very  large  blank-book,  as  every- 
thing was  to  be  learned,  I  made  it  a  daily  rule  for  fifteen  years 
to  make  full  notes  of  the  weather,  and  enter  a  complete 
statement  of  all  the  garden  operations  performed  each  day, 
which  turned  out  to  be  a  most  delightful  and  instructive  task, 
for  in  a  few  years  I  could  strike  an  average,  and  know  just 
when  and  how  each  operation  should  be  performed,  and  prob- 
able results. 

Taking  Henderson's  Market-Gardening  as  my  guide,  with 
proper  allowances  for  climate,  I  shall  ever  feel  under  obliga- 
tions for  the  valuable  information  contained  therein,  espe- 
cially his  earnest  advice  as  to  a  free,  in  fact  almost  extrava- 
gant, use  of  manure.  After  thirty  years  in  the  garden  and 
orchard,  I  attribute  whatever  measure  of  success  has  crowned 
rny  efforts  more  to  an  apparently  reckless  style  of  fertilizing 
than  all  else  combined.  Manure  means  both  water  and  culti- 
vation, for  I  have  often  seen  excellent  crops  made,  even  in 
grass  and  weeds,  on  very  rich  ground,  while  clean  culture  on 
that  only  half  fertilized  gave  a  practical  failure.  Food  in  pro- 
per proportions,  not  a  glut  of  any  one  element,  but  a  fairly 
complete  manure,  and  in  abundance,  is  the  one  absolute 
essential  for  the  highest  success,  in  the  garden  as  well  as  the 
orchard.  Thirty  years  ago  ttyis  necessity  for  a  complete  ferti- 
lizer was  not  recognized,  and  especially  the  need  for  potash, 
for  while  its  use  on  onions  was  generally  recommended,  the 
idea  seemed  to  be  prevalent  that  somehow  it  suited  that  crop 
better  than  any  other.  But  while,  as  I  have  said,  I  will  always 
thank  Henderson  for  his  injunctions  about  manuring,  he  gave 
2 — HORT. 


l8  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

another  direction  that,  as  far  as  I  know,  is  still  given  in  the 
books,  for  which  I  owe  him  a  most  serious  grudge.  The  first 
edition  of  his  work,  "Gardening  for  Profit,"  advised  that  no 
matter  how  long-stemmed  (or  legged,  as  we  call  it)  a  plant 
may  be,  to  set  it  down  to  the  bud,  and  gives  apparently  a  very 
good  reason,  for  the  North;  viz.,  to  protect  the  stem  from 
freezing  and  splitting  open.  Yet  I  am  confident  that  no 
single  piece  of  general  advice  ever  given  has  caused  and  still 
continues  to  cause  so  much  loss  of  plants  as  that.  While  I 
can  only  speak  from  actual  experience  here,  I  am  sure,  under 
general  conditions,  it  must  be  the  same  elsewhere.  For  sev- 
eral years  I  regularly  had  to  grow,  for  the  fall  crop  of  cab- 
bage and  cauliflower,  just  three  times  as  many  plants  as  I 
needed,  for  fear  of  accidents,  until  I  found  out  the  trouble. 
For  several  seasons  the  plants  were  set  as  directed,  with  the 
greatest  care,  and  yet  in  summer  and  fall,  if  the  stems  hap- 
pened to  be  a  little  long,  let  a  heavy  shower  fall  just  after 
they  were  planted,  or  if  set  during  rain  and  the  plants  were 
at  all  sappy  and  tender,  or  even  if  set  after  a  good  rain  and 
down  to  the  bud,  invariably  a  large  proportion  would  damp- 
off.  In  the  face  of  such  a  positive  direction  to  set  to  the 
bud,  I  racked  my  brain  to  find  out  the  cause,  and  have  to 
admit  that,  after  all,  it  came  by  pure  chance. 

We  had,  one  morning  early  in  September,  a  splendid  rain, 
and  being  cloudy  all  day,  we  rushed  out  about  twelve-thou- 
sand plants  after  dinner,  and  kept  it  up  until  dark,  and  when 
we  knocked  off,  I  happened  to  have  left  over  a  few  plants  in 
my  hand.  I  stopped  at  the  end  of  a  row,  and  stooping  down, 
made  shallow  holes  with  the  end  of  my  finger,  and  barely  in- 
serted the  roots  as  deep  as  they  stood  before,  leaving  the  en- 
tire stems  out.  That  night  another  fine  rain  fell,  none  too 
much,  that  I  could  see,  and  yet,  in  three  days,  more  than  half 
my  plants  had  damped  off  at  the  ground,  while  every  one  of 
that  handful  started  off  to  grow. 

I  saw  at  a  glance  the  cause  of  all  my  past  trouble.  Simply 
burying  the  tender  stems  under  the  ground.  While  this  is  so 
fatal  here  in  summer  and  fall,  deep  planting  is  equally  unde- 
sirable in  cool  weather,  especially  in  spring,  when  time  is 


EARLY  EXPERIENCES  AND  SEED-BEDS.  IQ 

money.  No  kind  of  plants  thus  set,  when  the  ground  is 
cold,  will  strike  root  quickly,  or  make  much  growth  until 
new  roots  are  emitted  near  the  warm  surface.  I  have  re- 
peatedly proved  a  difference  of  ten  days,  and  several  times 
much  more,  in  favor  of  those  planted  just  a  shade  deeper 
than  they  stood  before,  and  then  in  a  few  days  either  drawing 
up  the  earth  or  laying  the  stem  flat,  if  long,  and  covering 
with  surface-soil.  But  take  him  all  in  all,  Peter  Henderson 
may  well  be  called  the  father  of  modern  market-gardening  in 
this  country,  and  few  men  ever  achieve  such  signal  and  well- 
deserved  success  in  the  business  as  he. 

And  now,  as  a  successful  seed-bed  is  the  foundation  of 
all  profitable  market-gardening,  I  present  a  form  I  hit  upori 
from  necessity,  in  1869,  which,  though  adopted  now  by  many 
gardeners  in  this  section,  I  have  never  seen  described  in  any 
book.  I  found  that  the  green  and  bud-worms,  grasshoppers, 
crickets  and  flea-beetles  were  so  bad  on  my  cabbage  plants 
that,  failing  with  sprinkling  the  plants  with  foreign  substanceg 


SEED-BED,   WITH    MOSQUITO-NET    COVERING. 

to  kill  or  drive  them  off  (poisoning  being  unknown  then),  it 
struck  me  that  prevention  was  better  than  cure.  So  I  made 
my  seed-beds  the  second  summer  like  common  coldframes, 
without  the  ends,  as  shown  in  accompanying  illustration  : 

Set  up  on  edge  two  10  or  1 2-inch  planks  as  long  as  the 
bed  is  to  be,  and  about  5  feet  apart.  Nail  small  strips  from 
one  to  the  other,  at  intervals  of  about  2  feet,  and  at  each  end 


2O  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

next  to  the  ground,  nail  a  piece  of  i  x  3-inch  plank,  to  which 
the  ends  of  the  mosquito-bar  are  to  be  tacked.  Stretch  a 
bar  over  the  frame  after  the  seeds  are  sown  and  covered. 
The  shade  afforded  by  the  mosquito-bar  is  just  what  the 
young  cabbage,  cauliflower,  lettuce,  or  other  seed  requires  in 
summer,  though,  if  at  the  South,  and  more  is  desired,  a  light 
sprinkling  of  hay,  free  from  weed  seeds,  for  a  few  days,  will 
be  sufficient.  Water  can  be  applied  from  the  sprinkler  on 
and  through  the  bar,  which  is  not  to  be  removed,  except  once 
for  hand  weeding,  when  the  plants  are  half-grown.  This 
should  always  be  done  in  the  morning  or  at  mid-day,  when 
the  moths  are  at  rest,  never  late  in  the  evening.  This  form 
of  bed  and  covering  will  answer  perfectly  for  all  kinds  of 
flower  or  vegetable  seeds  to  be  planted  in  warm  weather  or 
when  glass  is  not  required,  and  if  carefully  done,  will  afford 
perfect  protection  and  give  nice,  clean  plants  when  the  time 
comes  to  set.  See  that  the  mosquito-bar  fits  close  all  around, 
and  is  free  from  even  a  small  hole,  for  the  ingenuity  and  per- 
ception of  moths  is  simply  wonderful,  and  they  will  find  the 
smallest  opening,  if  one  be  left. 

As,  next  to  good,  healthy  plants,  rich  ground  is  of  the 
utmost  importance,  I  will  discuss  the  subject  of  fertilizers  in 
the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Fertilisers —  Cotton-seed  Meal . 

WHILE  cotton-seed  meal  is  the  cheapest  and  one  of  the 
best  fertilizers  for  new  soils,  or  those  not  too  much 
exhausted  of  their  potash  and  phosphoric  acid,  many 
people  have  bad  luck  with  it  from  a  want  of  knowledge 
as  to  how  to  apply  it.  The  trouble  has  been  that  it  is  either 
used  in  the  hill  or  drill,  fresh,  with  the  seed,  or  else  planting 
is  done  too  soon  after  applying  it  to  the  ground.  It  should 
always  be  evenly  scattered  and  well  mixed  with  the  soil  at 
least  a  month  ahead,  for  it  not  only  heats  at  first,  but  also 
breeds  thousands  of  little  maggots  in  cool  weather,  that  bore 
into  seeds  of  every  kind  when  they  sprout,  and  often  into  the 
stems  of  cabbage  and  other  tender  plants.  In  hot  summer 
and  early  fall  weather,  decomposition  occurs  so  quickly  that 
this  never  occurs.  In  a  month,  however,  all  fermentation  is 
over,  the  maggots  are  dead,  and  then  cotton-seed  meal  is  the 
very  best  and  cheapest  of  all  manures  for  new  land  in  the 
coast  country.  It  costs  about  $18  per  ton,  while  bone  meal 
is  $28  to  $30,  and  a  ton  of  it  will,  the  first  season,  produce 
more  of  a  crop  than  two  tons  of  the  bone  meal. 

The  latter  is  a  most  excellent  fertilizer,  and  either  raw,  or, 
better  still,  in  the  form  of  super-phosphate,  will,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years,  when  the  soil  has  been  partially  exhausted  of 
its  soluble  phosphoric  acid  by  crops,  furnish  the  best  supply 
of  that  element.  Bone  meal  is  usually  too  coarse  to  allow 
of  more  than  a  very  small  per  centage  becoming  available 
as  plant  food  the  first  season,  and  it  is  poor  economy  to  bury 
so  valuable  a  fertilizer  a  year  or  two  before  it  can  be  used  by 
plants. 

Cotton-seed  meal  contains  about  8  per  cent,  of  ammonia, 
i^  per  cent,  each  of  potash  and  phosphoric  acid,  and  as  our 
lands  are  well  supplied  at  first  with  the  two  latter,  even  these 

(21) 


22  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

small  percentages  will  furnish,  for  most  crops,  all  the  mineral 
elements  needed  for  some  years. 

For  berries  and  tomatoes,  more  potash  will  brighten  the 
color  and  make  firmer  the  fruit  of  the  first,  and  render  that  of 
the  latter  less  liable  to  rot.  For  these  two  the  New  Orleans 
complete  fertilizer,  with  some  potash,  and  its  nitrogen  in  the 
form  of  nitrate  of  soda,  gave  me  excellent  results,  but  for  a 
cheap  and  valuable  all-round  manure  for  general  crops  and 
fruit  trees,  cotton-seed  meal  heads  the  list  for  new  lands. 

That  ammonia  is  the  element  of  all  others  most  needed  in 
this  section  was  plainly  demonstrated  by  the  snow  last  winter. 
While  the  mineral  constituents  are  fixed  in  the  earth,  nitro- 
gen in  the  form  of  ammonia  is  continually  escaping  into  the 
air  by  the  action  of  fermentation  and  decay,  and  constantly 
being  returned  to  the  soil  in  rain  and  snow.  We  all  know 
that  no  watering  wili  make  plants  grow  like  rain,  and  the 
snow  is  a  still  more  effective  ammonia  catcher.  The  differ- 
ence between  rain  and  snow  in  this  respect  is  that  the  former, 
while  it  brings  down  ammonia,  also  in  heavy  downpours  not 
only  carries  off  most  of  it  in  floods,  but  actually  washes  out 
much  of  this  very  soluble  element  from  the  soil  itself.  Every- 
one has  noticed  how,  after  excessive  rains,  even  on  the  best 
drained  ground,  plants  seem  to  stand  still.  But  that  snow 
came  last  winter  after  a  three  months'  drouth,  and  was  slowly 
absorbed  by  the  earth,  depositing  an  equivalent  of  thousands 
of  tons  of  cotton-seed  meal,  and  resulted  in  crops  of  all 
kinds,  even  on  fresh  broken  sod,  that  fairly  astonished  all  the 
older  settlers.  We  must  not  delude  ourselves  into  the  belief 
that  a  repetition  of  such  a  yield  is  likely  to  occur  the  coming 
season  on  ground  poorly  prepared.  Better  trust  to  thorough 
stirring  and  cultivation,  with  a  judicious  application  of  fertil- 
izers for  the  most  valuable  crops,  than  another  snowfall  from 
the  clerk  of  the  \veather  ! 

But  while  ammonia  is  most  required  at  first,  there  comes 
the  time,  in  a  few  years,  when  lands  from  which  continuous 
crops  have  been  taken  will  require  an  addition  of  more  of  the 
mineral  elements  also.  No  analysis  will  tell  this  as  effectively 
as  the  plants  themselves.  In  fact,  the  great  difficulty  of 


FERTILIZERS COTTON-SEED     MEAL.  23 

determining  the  exact  amount  of  plant  food  in  a  soluble  or 
available  condition  for  immediate  use,  renders  all  soil  analy- 
ses of  little  practical  value,  as  compared  with  actual  experi- 
ments that  can  be  made  by  everyone  for  himself  in  a  single 
season.  Whenever  the  tomato  runs  to  vine  and  makes  little 
fruit,  it  is  a  plain  call  for  phosphoric  acid,  or  if  the  fruit  rots 
at  the  blossom  end,  it  shows  that  potash  is  wanted.  If  the 
strawberry  leaves  begin  to  spot  considerably,  and  the  lower 
ones  to  dry  up,  or  cabbages  when  half  grown  burn  around  the 
edges  and  also  dry  up  or  shed  their  lower  leaves,  and  particu- 
larly when  the  plants  assume  a  pale,  yellowish  green  tinged 
with  red,  after  rain  or  cold,  and  fail  to  head  well,  unless  there 
is  some  local  cause,  such  as  bad  drainage,  it  may  be  set  down 
as  certain  that  potash  is  required.  When  this  element  is 
present  in  abundance,  cabbage  leaves  are  always  of  a  rich, 
dark  green. 

But  there  is  no  plant  that  indicates  a  poverty  of  potash 
in  the  soil  like  the  watermelon.  The  saying,  "new  ground 
for  watermelons,"  is  as  old  as  the  hills.  What  I  have  now  to 
say  pertains  to  all  soils,  but  is  particularly  applicable  to  the 
sandy  land  of  Bolivar  Point  and  Galveston  Island.  As 
is  well  known,  these  are  much  lighter  than  the  mainland, 
and  have  no  clay  subsoil,  and,  consequently,  little  potash. 
The  main  spring  crop  for  money  on  these  warm,  early  soils 
is  the  watermelon,  and  the  growers  are  in  tribulation  over 
the  gradual  deterioration  for  several  years,  and  almost  fail- 
ure last  summer,  of  all  the  melons  on  old  lands,  although 
well  manured  in  the  hill  with  rich  compost. 

The  trouble  is  what  may  be  called  the  "die  back."  The 
plants  generally  start  well  and  make  a  good  growth  for  awhile, 
but  when  the  melons  begin  to  set,  or  perhaps  are  half-grown, 
a  shoot  on  one  side  will  wither  away  and  die.  Then  another 
will  go,  and  if  the  whole  hill  does  not  die  out  the  vines  make 
poor  growth,  the  melons  are  small  and  of  very  poor  quality, 
and  the  roots  are  alive  with  a  minute  little  wriggler,  known 
as  the  "eel  worm."  While  I  never  saw  a  sample  of  the 
Bolivar  worm,  I  recognized  in  the  descriptions  of  him  and 
his  work,  an  old  acquaintance  that  I  made  the  third  year  of 


24  THE     NEW    HORTICULTURE. 

my  gardening  experience  on  Galveston  Island,  though  I  never 
knew  him  by  that  name. 

When,  in  1868,  I  first  went  into  the  gardening  business,  I 
had  but  five  acres  at  the  corner  of  Forty-fifth  street  and  Ave- 
nue N,  and  knew  absolutely  nothing  about  the  business.  In 
those  good  old  days  of  little  gold  but  lots  of  greenbacks, 
nothing  sold  like  melons,  cabbage  and  cauliflower.  Anything 
less  than  $10  per  dozen  for  good  lots  of  either,  if  moderately 
early,  was  not  thought  of,  and  when  a  few  years  later  the 
price  dropped  to  $4  and  £5  per  dozen,  we  all  cried  out  that 
we  were  positively  being  robbed.  Arming  myself  with  Hen- 
derson's ''Gardening  for  Profit,"  I  determined  to  grow  noth- 
ing but  melons  in  spring,  and  cabbage  and  cauliflower  in  the 
fall,  at  least  as  long  as  I  could.  In  May,  1868,  I  turned  my 
first  acre,  breaking  that  year  only  one  block  of  two  and  a-half 
acres.  After  plowing  and  harrowing  several  times,  the  ques- 
tion arose  as  to  the  best  manure  for  my  first  venture.  I  had 
studied  Henderson  until  I  knew  him  by  heart,  and  while  he 
had  excellent  words  for  pure  bone  flour  (not  coarse  meal), 
his  recommendation  of  1,200  pounds  per  acre  of  the  genuine, 
old-time,  12  per  cent,  ammonia  and  25  per  cent,  phosphoric 
acid  Peruvian  guano,  struck  my  fancy  most.  When  a  boy  I 
had  seen  spring  up,  almost  as  if  by  magic,  most  wonderful 
crops  of  wheat  from  the  worn-out  fields  of  old  Virginia,  when 
only  a  few  hundred  pounds  per  acre  were  applied,  and  my 
expectations  were  on  tiptoe  to  see  what  1,200  pounds  would 
do.  So,  without  further  debate,  I  ordered  my  seed  from 
Henderson,  and  the  $100  gold  per  ton  Chinca  Island  Peruvian 
guano,  the  supply  of  which  gave  out  years  ago,  from  Mapes, 
of  New  York. 

In  August  I  measured  off  an  acre  that  was  well  prepared, 
scattered  1,200  pounds  as  evenly  as  I  could,  harrowed  it  in, 
having  already  sowed  my  cabbage  seed.  Shortly  after  a 
splendid  rain  fell,  and  taking  advantage  of  it,  about  the  first 
of  September  I  set  this  acre  down  with  cabbage.  Nearly 
every  plant  lived,  and  though  the  green  worms  were  bad,  the 
season  was  so  favorable,  and  the  growth  so  rapid,  that  little 
damage  was  done,  and  in  November  I  began  to  market  a  crop 


FERTILIZERS COTTON-SEED     MEAL.  25 

that  I  never  saw  equaled  but  once,  and  that  was  in  1876,  of 
which  more  anon. 

Only  the  man  who  has  a  genuine  love  for  gardening  can 
appreciate  my  feelings  when  I  went  out,  on  clear,  calm  morn- 
ings, to  watch  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  gleam  down  the  long 
rows  of  great  plants,  with  their  ten  and  fifteen-pound  heads, 
as  regular  as  pig  tracks  down  a  lane,  and  nestling  in  a  wilder- 
ness of  rich,  dark  leaves,  silvered  over  with  the  sparkling  dew. 
That  I  had  the  "world  by  the  tail  and  a  down-hill  pull,"  I  felt 
sure,  and  I  did  for  a  few  years,  only  to  find  out  later  on  that 
the  pull  was  the  other  way,  and  I  couldn't  let  go. 

Well,  the  cabbage  was  cleared  off  at  the  biggest  kind  of 
prices,  and  the  whole  block  planted  down  in  spring  to  the 
old-time  red-seed  and  white-rind  "island"  melon,  and  as  an 
experiment,  for  I  began  experimenting  then,  and  have  never 
quit  to  this  day,  I  manured  the  balance  of  the  2^/2  acres 
with  barnyard  manure  in  the  hills  only.  While  this  turned 
out  to  be  a  first-class  experiment,  it  cost  heavily,  as  the  yield 
in  size  and  number  of  melons  on  the  cabbage  ground  far 
exceeded  that  on  the  other.  This  was  due  to  the  great 
amount  of  fruit-producing  element,  phosphoric  acid,  left  over 
from  the  guano  on  the  former.  As  we  all  know,  that  element, 
potash  and  nitrogen,  commonly  known  in  the  form  of  ammo- 
nia, are  the  three  main  constituents  of  plants,  and  the  only 
elements  of  plant  food  it  ever  becomes  really  necessary  to 
supply.  While  lime  also  enters  largely  into  their  composi- 
tion, it  is  found  so  abundant  in  all  soils  except  pure  sand 
that  its  use,  except  on  ground  made  over-rich  for  years  with 
barnyard  manure,  is  unnecessary.  As  a  corrective  of  what  is 
known  as  humic  acid  in  such  soils,  it  is  very  valuable,  and, 
with  an  application  of  hardwood  ashes,  would  regenerate  the 
flower  and  vegetable  gardens  of  Galveston  City  and  Island, 
many  of  which  have  been  dosed  to  death  with  animal  ma- 
nures. 

While  this  digression  may  seem  to  have  no  connection 
with  the  eel  worm,  it  has,  most  intimately,  and,  to  bring  it  out 
more  clearly,  a  few  further  remarks  in  the  same  line  are  nec- 
essary. While  ammonia,  potash  and  phosphoric  acid,  with 


26  THE      NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

lime,  form  the  bulk  of  plants  as  a  whole,  the  three  former,  to 
a  large  extent,  play  distinct  parts  in  their  development,  and 
an  abundance  of  all  is  absolutely  necessary  to  healthy  foliage 
and  full  crops  of  fruit.  The  office  of  ammonia  is  chiefly  to 
make  growth,  phosphoric  acid  to  make  fruit,  while  potash 
heightens  the  color  and  quality  of  the  fruit,  and  contributes 
most  largely  to  the  general  health  of  all  plants.  Just  in  pro- 
portion as  one  or  the  other  of  these  elements  is  lacking  in 
soils,  will  there  be  a  deficiency  in  the  corresponding  particu- 
lar. Everyone  has  noticed  that  a  heavy  dressing  of  stable 
manure,  with  its  ammonia,  will  make  tomatoes,  for  instance, 
run  all  to  vine,  and  continued  applications  ''burn"  anything 
it  is  put  around. 

Now,  at  the  time  I  write  of,  I  did  not  know  all  this,  and 
especially  the  office  of  and  need  of  potash.  Nor,  in  fact,  did 
anybody  else  know  it.  Peter  Henderson  and  every  farmer 
knew  that  the  continued  use  of  guano  would  "burn,"  barn- 
yard manure  in  excess  produce  club-root,  bone  meal  fail  in 
its  effect  if  used  continuously,  stable  manure  cease  to  produce 
healthy  crops  if  applied  in  succession  on  the  same  ground, 
and  so  on,  but  the  only  distinct  recognition  of  the  value  of 
potash  as  a  fertilizer  thirty  years  ago  was  for  onions.  All  the 
writers  on  gardening  invariably  noted  that  onions  could  be 
grown  year  after  year  successfully  on  the  same  ground,  and 
farther  on  the  remark  always  followed  :  "Ashes  are  a  special 
manure  for  onions." 

But  to  the  balance  of  my  story.  Year  after  year,  in  continu- 
ally increasing  quantities,  I  applied  first  one  and  then  another 
of  the  above  manures,  except  potash,  including  nitrate  of 
soda,  all  abounding  in  ammonia  and  phosphoric  acid,  but, 
with  the  exception  of  a  small  amount  in  stable  manure, 
entirely  deficient  in  potash.  Beginning  with  the  third  year, 
my  cabbage  and  cauliflower  commenced  to  spot  and  shed 
their  lower  leaves  when  half  grown,  split  open  and  rot  in  the 
stems,  the  tomatoes  went  mostly  to  vine,  and  the  fruit  rotted 
badly  at  the  blossom  end,  the  melons  set  less  fruit  and  failed 
to  grow  large,  and  the  vines  took  the  "die  back"  and  eel 
worm,  an  almost  microscopic  little  creature  that  infests  both 


FERTILIZERS — COTTON-SEED     MEAL.  27 

melon  and  egg-plant  roots  in  great  numbers  when  grown  on 
ground  deficient  in  potash,  as  Galveston  Island  and  Bolivar 
sandy  soil  necessarily  become  after  several  crops  have  been 
taken  off.  On  clay  soils  a  year  or  so  of  rest,  and  the  plowing 
in  of  peas  or  grass,  will  turn  loose  more  potash,  but  on  pure 
sandy  soils  there  is  little  more  on  hand. 

So,  there  I  was,  with  a  good  home,  then  increased  to  five 
acres,  and  pleasant  surroundings,  but  my  ground  "played 
out."  This  state  of  things  culminated  in  1875,  and  I  was 
thinking  seriously  of  hunting  some  new  ground,  when  one 
morning,  in  passing  a  powder  house,  situated  near  my  back 
fence,  I  saw  the  door  open,  and  looking  in  found  old  Colonel 
McKeen,  then  in  business  on  the  Strand  and  agent  for  a 
northern  powder  company.  With  him  were  several  gentle- 
men, who  were  discussing  the  best  method  of  getting  rid  of 
the  large  lot  of  damaged  powder  in  the  house.  The  high 
water  of  that  year  had  wet  some,  and  the  dampness  injured 
all  of  it  considerably,  and  Colonel  McKeen  was  just  saying 
that  the  best  thing  to  do  was  to  dump  the  whole  lot  into  the 
gulf.  Knowing  the  composition  of  powder,  and  that  75  per 
cent,  was  pure  nitrate  of  potash,  the  most  expensive  and  valu- 
able of  fertilizers,  I  offered  at  once  to  save  them  the  drayage, 
if  they  would  give  it  to  me.  While  evidently  wondering  what 
I  intended  to  do  with  it,  they  gladly  accepted  my  offer,  and 
turned  me  over  the  keys  and  about  five  tons  of  blasting  and 
gunpowder. 

I  had  it  hauled  away  at  once,  and  on  knocking  in  the  heads 
of  the  kegs  found  most  of  it  apparently  as  good  as  ever. 

We  prepared  about  four  acres,  and  in  a  few  days,  to  the 
astonishment  of  my  neighbors,  I  was  sowing  powder  at  the 
rate  of  i%  tons  per  acre,  the  costliest,  from  a  money  stand- 
point, and  probably  the  most  excessive  application  as  a  fer- 
tilizer ever  made  on  ground.  Each  ton  of  powder  contained 
about  800  pounds  of  ammonia  and  700  pounds  of  pure  pot- 
ash, and  as  cotton-seed  meal  has  but  160  pounds  of  ammonia 
and  30  pounds  of  potash  to  the  ton,  it  will  be  seen  what  a 
waste  it  was.  However,  as  it  cost  nothing,  and  was  danger- 
ous to  keep,  I  put  it  all  on. 


28  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

After  harrowing  in  well,  the  ground  was  thrown  up  into 
3-foot  ridges,  and  in  August  the  four  acres  were  set  with  cab- 
bage and  cauliflower,  at  the  rate  of  7,000  to  the  acre,  giving 
a  total  of  28,000  plants.  The  growth  was  extraordinary,  and 
not  a  spotted  leaf  or  diseased  plant  in  the  whole  lot,  from 
first  to  last.  I  never  before  or  since  saw  such  heads,  and 
many  of  the  older  members  of  the  Cotton  Exchange  will 
remember,  that  when  they  occupied  the  old  building  on 
Strand,  near  Twenty-first,  I  exhibited  on  their  floors,  for  sev- 
eral weeks,  in  half-barrels,  three  giant  cauliflowers  and  three 
cabbages,  taken  up  with  balls  of  earth,  the  smallest  head  of 
which,  when  stripped  of  the  outer  leaves,  weighed  17  pounds, 
and  several,  both  of  the  cauliflower  and  cabbage,  weighed  20 
pounds,  and  were  as  large  as  a  half-bushel  measure. 

The  winter  was  very  mild,  and  the  whole  crop  was  sold  on 
the  grounds,  netting  considerably  over  $6,000,  after  which 
the  four  acres  were  planted  to  melons,  and  the  crop  was  equally 
fine,  and  not  a  sick  plant,  where  the  eel  worm  and  "die  back" 
were  plentiful  before. 

Here,  then,  was  the  secret  of  "played  out"  and  diseased 
soil.  Simply  a  want  of  that  great  tonic  of  the  vegetable  sys- 
tem, potash. 

I  had  for  years  been  applying  heavy  doses  of  ammonia 
and  phosphoric  acid,  while  the  sandy  soil  had  been  drained 
of  its  potash,  resulting  in  diminished  and  diseased  crops. 
From  then  until  1883,  when  I  left  the  island,  I  invariably 
applied  the  muriate  of  potash  at  first,  and  after  the  oil  mill 
was  established,  cotton-seed  hull  ashes,  which  I  got  then, 
load  for  load  of  sand,  and  though  cabbage  was  planted  regu- 
larly every  year,  and  twice  a  spring  and  fall  crop  were  grown 
on  the  same  ground,  I  was  never  troubled  with  diseased  cab- 
bage or  melons  again. 

Just  how  potash  works  I  cannot  say.  Whether  it  actually 
destroys  the  bacteria  of  fungous  diseases,  and  such  minute 
pests  as  the  eel  worm,  which  is  exceeding  small,  or  whether 
it  simply  gives  health  and  vigor  to  the  plants  themselves, 
strengthening  and  hardening  the  tissues  of  both  leaves  and 
roots,  and  thus  enabling  them  to  resist  attack,  I  leave  for 


FERTILIZERS COTTON-SEED     MEAL.  2Q 

others  to  determine.  The  result  is  what  we  want,  and  I  am 
satisfied  that  if  the  island  and  Bolivar  growers,  and  others 
with  old  soil,  will  use  potash  freely,  such  trouble  will  not 
occur  again,  here  or  elsewhere. 

If  hull  ashes,  containing  30  per  cent,  potash,  and  about  8 
per  cent,  phosphoric  acid,  could  be  obtained  pure,  there  is  no 
better  supply,  but  the  mills  now  have  such  ready  sale  for  the 
hulls  that  they  find  it  does  not  longer  pay  to  burn  them,  and 
when  they  do,  it  is  often  in  conjunction  with  coal.  Bu£,  both 
the  muriate  and  sulphate  of  potash  can  be  obtained  from  the 
German  Kali  Works,  93  Nassau  street,  New  York,  who  also 
publish  a  valuable  pamphlet  on  their  use,  and  send  it  free  on 
application.  Just  how  little  of  either  will  do  I  cannot  say, 
as  I  always  applied  the  ashes  freely,  but  as  50  per  cent,  of 
both  muriate  and  sulphate  is  pure  potash,  about  300  or  400 
pounds  per  acre  ought  to  answer.  Experiments  on  a  small 
scale  should  be  made  with  from  200  to  500  pounds.  The 
muriate  is  mostly  used  at  the  North,  but  our  agricultural  and 
mechanical  station,  if  I  remember  aright,  found  the  sulphate 
to  give  the  best  results.  It  should  always  be  broadcasted  as 
evenly  as  possible,  and  well  mixed  with  the  soil.  Both  the 
hull  ashes  and  the  chemicals  should  be  used  with  great  care 
in  the  hills  with  seed.  The  safe  plan  would  be  to  scatter 
broadcast.  Use  no  animal  manure  or  compost  for  melons 
where  plants  have  shown  disease  before,  but  as  a  starter,  a 
few  handfuls  of  bone  meal,  or  the  New  Orleans  fertilizer,  now 
being  used  largely  on  the  mainland  with  fine  success  for 
tomatoes  and  berries,  should  be  worked  into  the  hills,  if  un- 
able to  fertilize  the  whole,  ground. 

And  now,  in  closing  my  remarks  on  fertilizers,  I  would  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  while  top-dressing  seems  to  be  gen- 
erally recommended  at  the  North,  and  may  be  useful  there, 
this  practice  ruined  several  crops  of  vegetables  and  straw- 
berries for  me  before  I  found  out  the  danger  of  it  here. 
All  fertilizers  should  be  applied  before  the  crops  are  planted, 
and  thoroughly  mixed  with  the  soil,  especially  in  spring  and 
early  summer.  I  would  much  rather  trust  to  poor  soil  than 
resort  to  this  method  at  those  seasons.  For  cabbage  and 


30  THE    NEW    HORTICULTURE. 

cauliflower  in  fall,  it  is  admissible,  if  those  greedy  crops  show 
the  need  of  it,  but  it  is  almost  certain  ruin  to  a  strawberry 
crop  in  this  section.  It  invariably  induces  the  roots  to  come 
to  the  surface,  and  any  extreme  of  either  wet  or  dry  will 
bring  out  what  is  commonly  known  as  ''rust."  Of  course, 
these  remarks  apply  to  annual  crops  only,  and  not  to  orchards, 
which  should  be  fertilized  on  the  surface  about  the  time 
growth  starts  in  spring,  and  not  in  the  fall. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Winter  and  Early  Spring  Cultivation. 

THE  general  directions  for  cultivating  all  crops  are  to  stir 
the  soil  repeatedly,  which,  while  excellent  advice  under 
certain  conditions  and  at  certain  times,  is  very  bad 
advice  at  others.  We  all  know  the  benefits  from  such  treat- 
ment in  hot  weather,  when  the  little  clods  and  loose  soil  shade 
and  keep  the  earth  cool,  as  well  as  break  the  capillary  attrac- 
tion and  retain  the  moisture.  But  there  are  times  and  places 
where  this  is  just  what  we  do  not  want.  All  through  the 
lower  Gulf  states,  where  winter  gardening  is  practiced,  the 
very  opposite  from  the  above  is  the  proper  treatment,  and 
thousands  of  dollars  are  wasted  annually  at  that  season  in 
worse  than  useless  cultivation.  What  is  sauce  for  the  goose 
is  also  sauce  for  the  gander,  and  winter  cultivation  not  only 
very  greatly  reduces  the  temperature  of  the  earth  itself,  but 
after  heavy  rains  the  stirred  soil,  acting  like  a  sponge,  retains 
more  water  than  is  needed,  thus  reducing  the  temperature 
and  checking  growth.  The  toper's  theory  of  drinking  whis- 
key in  summer  to  keep  cool,  and  in  winter  to  keep  warm, 
will  not  work  in  this  case. 

The  truth  is,  the  same  results  follow  cultivation,  both  in 
summer  and  winter,  and  the  effect  in  each  is  to  shade  the 
ground  and  prevent  the  absorption  of  heat  by  the  surface 
during  the  day,  as  well  as  to  increase  radiation  from  freshly 
stirred  ground  at  night.  Every  one  knows  that  smooth,  firm 
ground  will  heat  up  much  more  quickly  and  intensely  in  sum- 
mer, and  should  be  stirred  ;  but  in  winter  at  the  South,  and 
early  spring  both  South  and  North,  as  heat  is  absolutely  nec- 
essary to  plant  growth,  and  the  ground  is  damp  and  cold,  the 
proper  thing  then  is  to  leave  the  surface  smooth  and  firm 
until  later  on,  when  the  earth  warms  up.  If  some  one  ob- 
jects that  plants  left  thus  can  get  no  air  to  the  roots,  the 

(30 


32  THE     NEW      HORTICULTURE. 

answer  is  that  air  is  in  no  way  necessary  or  beneficial  to  the 
roots  of  plants  or  trees,  this  being  another  of  the  ancient  fal- 
lacies handed  down  from  the  past.  Nothing  is  more  injurious 
to  roots  than  air.  Exposed  to  it,  they  always  suffer  at  once. 
I  can  say  from  extensive  and  repeated  practice,  that  in  cool 
fall,  winter  and  early  spring  weather,  the  less  the  soil  is 
stirred  about  growing  plants  the  better. 

Hand  picking  of  weeds  around  young  melons,  cucumbers 
or  other  early  crops  while  small  will  pay  well,  or  if  hoed, 
simply  scrape  the  surface  as  lightly  as  possible.  If  any  one 
doubts  these  facts,  let  him  work  a  small  space  deeply  in  early 
spring,  and  the  next  sunny  day  sink  a  thermometer  into  it, 
and  then  place  it  in  a  hole  dug  to  the  same  depth  on  clean, 
smooth  ground  along-side.  It  is  surprising  how  much  warmer 
the  latter  will  be,  and  warmth  means  growth.  After  a  heavy 
rain  the  difference  will  be  much  more  marked,  when,  as  noted 
above,  deep,  loose  soil  retains  water  and  chills  the  ground. 

As  illustrating  the  value  of  letting  well  enough  alone,  a 
clipping  from  a  neighboring  paper,  the  Alvin  Sun,  published 
on  the  I4th  of  February,  1896,  is  appended  : 

"T.  M.  Savel  brought  to  our  office  this  week  a  head  of  cabbage 
that  measured  in  circumference  58  inches,  and  weighed  18^  pounds. 
It  has  been  growing  in  the  patch  all  the  winter,  and  the  ground  was 
well  fertilized  with  barnyard  manure ;  but,  strange  to  say,  was  never 
stirred  around  it,  or  the  rest  of  the  patch,  but  once,  when  young; 
and  he  has  lots  more  nearly  as  large." 

The  knowledge  of  this  truth  about  cultivation  in  cool 
weather  has  been  worth  a  great  deal  of  money  to  me  in  the 
past,  as  I  was  thus  often  able  to  surprise  my  first,  last  and  all- 
the-time-cultivating  neighbors  by  bringing  in  the  first  early 
truck.  I  learnt  it,  however,  as  we  do  most  things  of  value, 
by  a  severe  experience,  which  I  will  now  give. 

Soon  after  I  began  gardening  I  had,  one  spring,  a  splen- 
did stand  of  cucumbers  and  cantaloupes  with  the  third  leaf 
nicely  out.  Being  very  busy,  the  ground  had  not  been  stirred 
around  them,  though  the  beds  were  clean.  A  smart  Aleck 
came  along  and  insisted  that  it  was  a  shame  to  neglect  such  a 
beautiful  patch  (and  they  really  were  fine,  the  ground  being 
very  rich);  so  to  do  the  proper  thing,  I  concluded  to  work 


WINTER     AND     EARLY     SPRING     CULTIVATION.  33 

them  myself,  for  fear  my  hired  man  would  not  do  them  full 
justice.  Arming  myself  with  a  pronged  hoe,  I  went  at  it  with 
a  will,  and  by  night  had  all  but  one  row  nicely  forked  up 
quite  deeply.  While  it  nearly  broke  my  heart  to  think  that 
the  poor  little  plants  in  that  last  row  had  to  go  neglected 
another  night,  still  it  could  not  be  helped,  as  it  was  actually 
too  dark  to  work  any  longer.  But  about  daylight  a  heavy 
soaking  rain  fell  for  two  hours,  and  I  lay  there  thinking  how 
those  plants  would  grow,  and  felt  more  sorry  than  ever  for 
those  poor  little  fellows  in  the  packed  ground,  who  got  no 
working.  The  sun  shone  out  warm  and  clear  in  the  morning, 
but  a  cold  north  wind  came  up  later,  and  that  night  the  ther- 
mometer went  to  thirty-eight  degrees,  but  no  frost.  The 
next  day  was  bright  and  warm,  but  instead  of  growing  off 
rapidly,  as  I  expected  they  would,  the  last  one  of  the  worked 
plants,  after  turning  a  sickly  yellow  for  a  few  days,  laid  down 
and  died,  while  not  one  of  the  unworked  row  was  damaged 
at  all.  The  result  was,  that  I  finally  made  more  clear  money 
from  that  one  row  than  all  the  balance  that  had  to  be  replanted. 

The  reason  was  plain.  The  deep,  loose  soil  held  the  cold 
water  like  a  sponge  around  the  roots,  giving  chilly  feet,  while 
the  warm  sunshine  made  their  heads  too  hot.  That  is  good 
for  neither  man  nor  plant,  and  from  that  day  to  this  I  never 
worked  another  heat-loving  plant  deeply  again  in  early  spring, 
and  have,  moreover,  just  finished,  this  i4th  day  of  February, 
marketing  the  last  of  a  crop  of  very  fine  lettuce  on  very  rich 
ground,  that  has  never  had  an  hour's  work  since  it  was 
planted,  in  December. 

I  append,  as  bearing  on  the  subject  in  connection  with 
trees,  as  well  as  vegetables,  an  extract  from  Farm  and  Ranch, 
by  Mr.  H.  B.  Hillyer,  a  thoughtful  and  progressive  horticul- 
turist of  this  state,  who  makes  these  remarks  in  a  friendly 
criticism  of  an  article  by  me  : 

*****  "But  friend  Stringfellow's  articles  have  set  us  all  to 
thinking,  and  the  oldest  will  do  well  to  read  and  ponder  them. 
Farmers  have  long  known  that  if  you  plow  to-day  a  few  rows  or  less 
in  a  corn  field,  and  at  night  a  frost  comes  on,  the  corn  well  plowed 
will  every  stalk  be  killed,  while  the  unplowed  will  escape  unhurt, 
and  often  does,  especially  if  deeply  planted. 
3— HO*RT. 


34  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

"But  how  about  an  orchard?  My  soil  is  light,  black  prairie, 
partly  covered  with  live  oak  and  mesquite.  My  orchard  proper  is 
young.  This  is  its  third  year,  and  hence  I  am  cultivating  three  rows 
of  potatoes  or  corn  in  the  middles.  This  leaves  the  trees  on  the 
middle  of  an  eight-foot  bed  that  has  not  been  plowed.  The  past  two 
weeks  we  had  two  frosts,  thermometer  barely  to  thirty-two  degrees. 
I  have  thirty  varieties  of  peaches  in  my  orchard.  Excepting  some 
Alexanders  next  to  the  cow  lot,  the  fruit  is  entirely  destroyed ;  apri- 
cots also. 

44  In  one  of  my  chicken  yards,  which  has  never  been  cultivated,  I 
have  five  peach  trees  and  plum  trees,  all  in  full  bloom.  I  never  saw 
heavier  crops  of  fruit,  and  but  little  damage  by  frost.  If  we  have 
no  more  frost  I  will  have  to  unload  the  trees  to  fully  one-half. 
Moreover,  these  same  trees  last  year  bore  heavy  crops,  despite  the 
cold  weather,  that  destroyed  almost  the  entire  fruit  crop  of  all  this 
section.  In  my  yard  I  have  five  peach  trees,  one  Prunus  Simoni,  one 
quince,  three  pear  trees  and  several  plums  not  at  all  injured  by  the 
frost.  These  all  bore  heavily  last  year  except  the  pear  and  quince, 
which  are  too  young  yet  to  bear,  and  are  again  full.  Two  neigh- 
bors had  plowed  their  orchards  and  lost  all  their  fruit ;  one  neighbor 
had  not  plowed,  and  his  fruit  is  but  little  injured. 

"  Is  not  this  an  object  lesson  well  worthy  of  our  serious  study  ? 
From  it  I  would  deduce  the  following  rule  for  cultivation :  Never 
put  a  plow  into  the  orchard  until  all  danger  of  frost  is  over. 

4 'Now,  don't  understand  me  to  say  that  frost  or  freeze  cannot 
destroy  the  fruit  on  non- cultivated  trees,  but  only  that  an  orchard 
freshly  plowed  is  far  more  susceptible  to  freeze  and  frost  than  un- 
plowed  soil.  My  orchard  was  plowed  at  least  three  weeks  before  the 
frost,  for  the  Irish  potatoes  were  just  beginning  to  come  up. 

44Live,  study,  learn  !" 

The  true  cause  of  the  plowed  trees  losing  their  fruit  was 
the  loss  of  a  large  quantity  of  their  surface  feeding-roots,  up- 
on which  the  setting  and  development  of  the  fruit  largely 
depend. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Cabbage. 

is  a  most  important  crop  everywhere,  and  in  the 
Gulf  States  the  seed  for  the  early  fall  crop  should 
be  sown  in  July,  in  a  frame,  under  a  mosquito-bar,  as 
described  elsewhere.  After  the  seeds  are  planted,  the  mos- 
quito-bar must  be  stretched  very  carefully,  so  as  to  leave  no 
possible  opening  for  the  moths  to  creep  in,  which  they  will 
surely  do  if  given  half  a  chance.  Shade  the  bed  with  hay.or 
some  covering  on  top  the  bar  until  the  plants  come  up,  when 
most  of  it  must  be  removed,  leaving  just  enough  to  afford  a 
light  shade  until  the  third  leaf  is  out,  after  which  it  may  all 
be  removed.  The  bed  should  be  watered  right  through  the 
bar  once  every  day  or  so,  until  the  plants  get  strong,  and  this 
can  be  done  with  perfect  safety  any  time  of  the  day,  even  at 
noon,  though  the  general  but  erroneous  idea  is,  that  water  at 
such  times  will  scald  the  plants.  We  know  that  rain  often 
falls  when  the  sun  is  shining,  or  comes  out  hot  a  few  minutes 
after  it,  and  no  harm  results. 

An  ounce  of  seed  will  produce  about  two  thousand  plants, 
but  it  is  well  to  provide  seed  enough,  in  case  of  failure,  and 
a  new  seed-bed  should  be  sown  in  about  two  weeks,  for  fear 
of  accidents.  The  plants  can  always  be  sold,  if  not  needed. 
The  ground  should  be  heavily  fertilized  and  well  prepared 
at  least  a  month  ahead,  throwing  it  up  in  quite  high  ridges, 
which  will  retain  the  moisture  and  allow  of  knocking  off  the 
tops  when  ready  to  plant.  I  will  again  repeat,  that  in  all  the 
level  gulf-coast  country  everything  should  be  planted  well  up, 
for  excessive  rains  are  liable  to  come  at  any  time,  and  that 
means  absolute  ruin  on  flat,  level  ground.  The  plants  can 
be  set  as  soon  as  large  enough.  If  dry  at  the  time  of  plant- 
ing set  them  shallow,  .pressing  the  earth  down  firmly,  so  as 
to  leave  a  depression  into  which  about  a  pint  of  water  can  be 

(35) 


36  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

poured,  but  by  no  means  fill  the  hole  up  with  soil  for  several 
days,  until  the  plants  take  root,  after  which  the  earth  can  be 
drawn  in  and  around  the  stems,  and  damping-off  be  thus  obvi- 
ated. Cultivate  well  during  October,  but  after  a  good  rain 
that  month,  let  the  ground  alone,  so  that  the  surface  roots  can 
form  and  help  push  the  plants  along  during  the  many  cool 
days  of  fall,  as  noted  elsewhere  on  winter  cultivation. 

If  the  green  worms  appear,  and  they  surely  will,  go  over 
the  plants,  when  the  dew  is  on  them,  with  a  powder  bellows 
with  flour  and  just  enough  Paris  green  to  color  it.  If  sifted 
just  before  using,  the  flour  will  scatter  much  more  readily. 
This  application  will  kill  the  worms,  and  does  no  harm,  for 
all  the  first  leaves  of  every  cabbage  are  gone  long  before  the 
head  appears  ;  besides,  the  rain  will  soon  wash  it  off.  This 
dose  may  have  to  be  repeated,  though  usually  one  good  appli- 
cation is  sufficient  for  plants  on  rich  ground — and  no  other 
should  be  used  for  cabbage — and  the  plants  will  grow  rapidly 
ahead  of  the  worms  after  cool  weather  sets  in.  If,  when 
headed  in  November  and  December,  the  heads  show  signs  of 
bursting,  go  over  and  pull  gently  all  such  plants  until  the 
strong  roots  crack,  and  let  them  settle  back,  when  growth 
will  be  checked  and  the  head  only  get  the  harder. 

Seed  for  the  winter  crop  should  be  sown  in  October  and 
set  in  November,  and  if  we  miss  a  heavy  freeze,  as  we'  have 
this  year,  and  often  do,  these  plants  will  make  the  largest 
heads  in  the  year.  For  spring  planting,  sow  in  December,  in 
cold-frames,  to  be  protected  by  glass  or  oiled  cloth,  and  set 
the  last  of  January,  on  well  prepared  ridges  thrown  up  at 
least  a  month  before,  so  that  the  ground  will  be  clean  and 
free  from  cut-worms.  If  seeds  are  sown  here  in  spring,  there 
is  rarely  a  market  for  the  product,  as  the  gardeners  farther 
up  in  the  interior  plant  at  that  time,  and  a  glut  usually  fol- 
lows. Before  leaving  this  subject,  I  must  call  attention  to  a 
very  erroneous  notion  which  many  growers  entertain,  and  that 
is,  that  if  the  central,  original  bud  of  the  plant  is  eaten  out 
by  a  worm  or  other  insect,  that  plant  will  not  head,  a  side 
shoot  being  useless  for  that  purpose.  Thousands  of  plants 
are  annually  pulled  up  after  getting  a  good  start,  and  others 


CABBAGE.  37 

put  in  their  places,  by  growers  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  one 
bud  is  just  as  good  and  sure  to  head  as  another,  if  all  but 
one  shoot  is  rubbed  off. 

As  to  varieties,  of  course  locality  and  soil  will  decide  this 
largely,  but  the  extra  early  kinds  are  of  no  value  in  the  far 
South,  as  the  market  is  well  supplied  in  early  fall  with  north- 
ern cabbage.  The  old  Pettier' s  Brunswick  was  my  favorite 
for  years.  It  makes  a  very  large,  hard,  flat  head,  but  is  not 
quite  as  hardy  for  January  weather  as  the  common  Flat 
Dutch  and  Drumhead  varieties  of  selected  strains.  The 
Fottler  and  Early  Summer  are  excellent  for  spring,  though 
the  latter  is  hardly  large  enough  for  a  market  cabbage.  The 
Winnigstadt  and  other  pointed  kinds  are  not  popular  at  the 
South,  and  do  not  stand  the  heat  in  spring  as  well  as  the  flat 
kinds. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Cauliflower. 

SOUTH  TEXAS,  especially  near  the  coast,  is  admirably 
adapted  to  this  vegetable  as  a  fall  crop,  but  it  is  entirely 
useless  to  undertake  its  growth  here  in  spring.  No  mat- 
ter how  good  the  seed  or  rich  the  ground,  the  flowers  will  be 
loose  and  open,  and  of  small  size.  The  cauliflower  likes  a 
gradually  decreasing  temperature,  as  in  the  fall.  It  should 
be  sowed  at  the  same  time  and  treated  exactly  like  cabbage 
in  every  respect,  and  is  quite  as  easy  to  grow,  except  that  if 
the  center  bud  or  heart  is  destroyed  by  any  insect,  the  plant 
rarely  sends  up  a  new  one,  though  occasionally  from  near  the 
ground,  a  new  sprout  will  start,  but  so  late  that  it  pays  bet- 
ter to  pull  it  up  and  replant.  The  most  important  point  for 
success,  next  to  very  rich  ground,  is  the  right  variety  of  seed. 
When  Henderson  first  introduced  his  Snowball  cauliflower, 
now  so  well  and  favorably  known,  I  paid  him  $10  per  ounce 
for  several  years,  and  made  big  money  by  it,  for  the  heads 
were  by  far  the  finest  in  the  market,  and  brought  fancy  prices. 
As  showing  the  intrinsic  value  of  first-class  cauliflower  seed, 
the  Henderson  Snowball  is  still  held  by  that  firm  at  $4  per 
ounce,  and  is  cheaper,  really,  at  that  than  most  of  the  cauli- 
flower seed  would  be  as  a  gift.  There  is  no  early  variety 
equal  to  it,  but  there  is  a  large  amount  of  so-called  Snowball 
seed  that  is  of  no  value  at  all. 

After  setting  out  as  directed  for  cabbage,  the  plants  should 
be  well  cultivated  until  half  grown  and  the  weather  begins  to 
get  cool,  after  which  the  ground  should  not  be  again  dis- 
turbed. I  state  this  as  an  absolute  fact,  after  years  of  experi- 
ments. While  cabbage  can  be  preserved  through  the  winter 
at  the  north  and  put  upon  the  market  as  demand  requires,  it 
is  not  so  with  cauliflower.  After  heading,  it  is  impossible  to 
store  the  crop  away  long  for  future  use,  consequently  there 

(38) 


CAULIFLOWER.  39 

should  always  be  a  good  winter  demand  for  this  vegetable  up 
there,  and  there  is  no  good  reason  why  the  coast  country  of 
Texas  should  not  ship  in  car-load  lots  to  northern  cities  at  a 
fair  profit,  after  their  crops  are  gone.  The  cauliflower  will 
stand  uninjured  a  temperature  of  twenty-five  degrees,  and 
younger  plants,  not  yet  showing  the  flower,  a  little  lower. 
When  the  flower  is  three  or  four  inches  in  diameter,  several 
of  the  surrounding  leaves  should  be  broken  down  over  it  to 
exclude  the  light,  which  turns  its  creamy  color  to  a  dull 
yellow. 

The  ground  can  scarcely  be  made  too  rich  for  this  crop, 
and  should  always  contain  a  full  supply  of  potash  and  salt. 
The  latter  is  a  special  addition  for  both  cauliflower  and  cab- 
bage, and  should  never  be  omitted,  for  though  it  does  not 
seem  to  stimulate  growth  at  all,  it  is  for  certain  plants  a  won- 
derful tonic,  so  to  speak.  It  gives  to  both  the  above-men- 
tioned ones  a  rich,  dark  green  color,  and  also  very  greatly 
thickens  the  leaves  and  enables  them  to  stand  much  more 
cold.  Cultivating,  as  I  did  for  many  years,  ground  that  was 
occasionally  partly  overflowed  by  the  gulf,  I  had  full  oppor- 
tunity to  study  its  effects,  and  know  that  salt  will  render  these 
plants  more  hardy  as  well  as  healthy.  While  not  a  full  sub- 
stitute with  them  for  potash,  it  acts  very  much  like  it.  It  will 
pay  well  to  apply  1,000  pounds  per  acre  for  these  crops,  while 
beets,  carrots,  ruta-bagas  and  kohl-rabi  are  also  greatly  ben- 
efited by  its  presence  in  the  ground.  Tomatoes,  melons, 
cucumbers,  corn,  squash  and  lettuce  have  no  use  at  all  for  it. 
In  applying,  mix  well  with  the  soil  some  time  before  planting, 
or  it  can  be  top-dressed  without  damage,  after  the  plants  get 
well  off  to  growing,  and  with  equally  as  good  effects  if  rain 
falls  to  carry  it  in. 

In  growing  cauliflower  plants,  make  a  frame  with  mos- 
quito-bar, as  for  cabbage,  but  as  the  seeds  are  so  costly,  in- 
stead of  raking  in,  it  is  better  to  sow  in  very  shallow  drills, 
or  else  broadcast  rather  thinly,  to  give  stout  plants,  and  after 
watering,  cover  lightly  by  hand  with  fine  soil,  and  shade. 
The  seed  will  not  stand  quite  as  deep  covering  and  come  well 
as  cabbage.  In  this  section  from  the  first  to  the  last  of  July 


40  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

is  the  proper  time  to  sow  the  seed  for  the  fall  crop,  but  those 
who  are  willing  to  gamble  with  the  clerk  of  the  weather,  can 
continue  to  plant  through  August  and  September,  and  often 
win,  as  was  the  case  this  season.  However,  for  the  later 
plantings,  the  Italian  Autumn  Giant  variety,  sold  by  Frot- 
scher,  of  New  Orleans,  is  more  hardy,  though  the  flowers  are 
not  so  handsome.  I  have  had  heads  of  that  variety  in  Feb- 
ruary and  March  that  weighed  fifteen  to  twenty  pounds,  as 
for  instance,  those  exhibited  at  the  Cotton  Exchange  in  this 
city.  I  again  repeat,  plant  this  crop  on  a  good,  high  ridge 
in  all  level  locations. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

The   Tomato. 

WHILE  the  general  belief  is  that  the  tomato  does  best 
on  only  moderately  manured  land,  this  depends  en- 
tirely on  what  kind  of  manure  is  used.  My  expe- 
rience has  been  that  ground  can  hardly  be  made  too  rich  in 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  though  undoubtedly  a  surplus 
of  ammonia  will  cause  the  vines  to  grow  too  rank  and  fruit 
sparingly,  as  well  as  make  the  tomatoes  rot  at  the  blossom 
end.  And  now,  a  few  points  to  beginners  about  growing  the 
plants.  While  hotbeds  are  necessary  farther  north,  here  a 
coldframe  is  all  that  is  needed.  Nothing  is  gained  by  sow- 
ing the  seed  before  January  ist  to  I5th,  as  it  is  always 
very  risky  to  set  out  in  the  open  ground  before  the  loth 
to  the  2oth  of  March,  and  the  ground  is  usually  too  cold  to 
stimulate  growth  if  set  before.  Make  a  well  pulverized, 
rich  bed,  about  one  foot  above  the  surface,  on  well  drained 
ground,  and  large  enough  to  hold  a  plank  frame  of  1x6- 
inch  stuff  3x6  feet,  or  the  proper  size  to  fit  the  sash.  A 
frame  of  that  size  will  easily  hold  3,000  plants  from  the 
seeds,  which  should  be  sown  quite  thickly,  then  watered 
well  and  covered  thinly  and  evenly  by  sprinkling  soil  over 
them.  Put  on  the  sash,  and  keep  down  until  the  seeds 
are  up  nicely,  when  the  back  should  be  raised  slightly  every 
sunny  day,  to  give  air.  Now  make  up  a  larger  bed  and  frame 
at  once,  to  hold  what  plants  it  is  intended  to  set  outside  for 
the  crop,  and  be  sure  to  have  it  on  clean  ground,  free  of  cut- 
worms. Old  barnyard  manure  is  excellent  to  fertilize  with, 
though  fine  bone  meal  is  also  good.  But  use  no  cotton-seed 
meal  unless  applied  a  month  before.  Having  raked  fine  and 
smooth,  lay  off  rows  both  ways  with  a  long,  straight-edged 
strip  pressed  on  the  soil,  and  let  them  be  about  four  or  five 
inches  apart  each  way.  This  will  afford  room  enough,  if  sash 

(40 


42  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

are  scarce,  provided  the  plants  have  the  buds  nipped  out 
when  five  or  six  inches  high,  which  should  always  be  done 
to  make  them  stocky.  Afterwards,  as  they  grow  larger,  it  is 
well  to  clip  off  some  of  the  older  leaves,  which  will  give  more 
air  and  room.  After  the  lines  are  drawn,  set  a  plant  at  each 
intersection,  and  be  sure  to  have  the  rows  straight  and  at 
equal  distances  apart,  so  when  the  plants  are  nearly  ready  to 
go  out,  a  large  case  or  butcher  knife  can  be  drawn  deeply 
from  one  side  of  the  frame  to  the  other  each  way  between  the 
rows.  This  is  to  be  done  a  week  before  planting  in  the  open 
ground,  and  a  good  watering  given  just  after.  The  effect  of 
this  will  be  to  start  a  multitude  of  fine,  hair  roots  in  the  squares 
whereon  stand  the  plants.  In  three  days  run  the  knife  again, 
and  in  a  few  days  more  the  front  board  of  the  frame  can  be 
taken  out  and  a  sharp  spade  run  under  the  plants  about 
three  inches  deep,  when  they  will  come  up  with  nice,  firm 
balls  of  earth,  and  hardly  know  they  were  moved. 

In  preparing  the  ground  for  the  crop,  it  should  always  be 
plowed  in  the  fall,  if  possible,  and  kept  clean  through  the 
winter  in  this  warm  climate,  where  the  cut-worm  moths  are 
often  active  even  then,  and  are  sure  to  lay  their  eggs  near  the 
young  weeds  and  grass  if  the  ground  is  foul.  Then  in  Janu- 
ary scatter  about  600  pounds  of  cotton-seed  hull  ashes,  30  per 
cent,  potash,  and  the  same  quantity  of  ammoniated  super- 
phosphate, broadcast,  per  acre.  This  should  be  plowed  in, 
throwing  the  ground  up  into  five-feet  beds,  with  a  deep  furrow 
between.  Along  in  the  bottoms  and  on  the  sides  of  the  fur- 
rows a  second  dressing  of  the  phosphate  must  be  scattered, 
and  then  the  beds  plowed  back  as  deeply  as  possible  on  these 
furrows,  and  a  light  harrow  passed  once  over  each  bed  to 
smooth  it  down.  The  ground  is  now  ready  for  the  plants, 
which  should  be  set  about  the  middle  of  March,  three  feet 
apart  in  the  rows  and  but  little  deeper  than  before.  Water- 
ing is  not  necessary  for  plants  grown  as  directed,  at  the  time 
of  planting,  unless  the  ground  is  very  dry,  which  will  never 
be  the  case  if  prepared  ahead,  as  advised.  But  if  the  weather 
continues  dry,  a  moderate  watering  a  week  after  planting, 
with  five  pounds  nitrate  of  soda  to  fifty  gallons  of  water,  will 


THE    TOMATO.  43 

start  a  rapid  growth.  When  the  plants  begin  to  bloom,  run 
around  them  lightly  with,  the  plow,  throwing  the  entire  bed 
up  a  second  time,  leaving  a  high,  warm  ridge,  perfectly 
drained,  upon  which  the  fruit  can  lie  without  rotting.  One 
hoeing  around  the  plants,  and  one  or  two  cultivatings,  will 
make  the  crop,  running  the  plow  or  sweep  in  the  furrows 
after  each  one  to  open  it  out  clean. 

And  here,  as  elsewhere  through  this  book,  I  must  urge  all 
growers  in  the  level  coast  country  of  Texas  to  plant  all  crops 
on  well  raised  beds  or  ridges.  While  on  high,  rolling  land 
flat  culture  may  do,  I  believe  that  for  early  spring  planting  all 
through  this  coast  country,  the  ridge  system  is  the  safest  and 
best.  While  the  general  impression  is  that  plants  on  a  level 
will  stand  drouth  the  best,  I  have  found  scarcely  any  differ- 
ence on  rich  ground,  even  in  dry  spells,  but  if  heavy  rains 
occur,  flat  planting  simply  means  ruin.  The  hot  sun  on  a 
saturated,  loose,  flat  soil,  even  for  a  few  hours,  will  furnish  the 
conditions  for  the  development  of  rust  or  burning,  as  well  as 
rot  in  the  fruit.  On  high,  broad  beds,  as  herein  advised, 
staking  of  the  plants  is  not  necessary,  as  the  surface  quickly 
dries  off  after  rains,  and  very  few  of  the  tomatoes  that  rest 
upon  the  ground  will  rot.  I  made  a  fair  trial  of  growing  to 
a  single  stake  and  stem,  with  pinching  back  of  laterals,  but 
growth  here  is  so  rapid  and  strong  on  rich  ground,  that  the 
method  involves  too  much  labor,  nor  is  there  any  material 
advantage  in  earliness.  I  omitted  to  say  that  after  the  plants 
are  set  out,  if  the  stems  are  a  little  long  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
peg  them  down,  all  one  way,  with  two  cross  sticks,  to  prevent 
damage  from  whipping  winds.  This  is  excellent  for  egg- 
plants, also,  which  and  sweet  peppers  should  be  grown  from 
the  seed  and  treated  in  the  frames  just  as  the  tomatoes  were. 
If  a  freeze  seems  inevitable  after  the  plants  are  set  out,  take 
a  spade  full  of  pulverized  surface  soil  and  gently  slide  it  on 
the  plants  from  the  bottom  of  the  stem  up,  pressing  the  plants 
down,  and  if  too  large  to  cover  entirely,  and  the  exposed  tops 
are  killed,  cut  them  off  at  once,  remove  the  covering  of  earth, 
and  the  plants  will  quickly  renew  themselves. 

The  only  insect  that  troubles  tomatoes  in   this  section  is 


44  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

the  Spanish  fly  or  blister  beetle,  the  boll  worm,  so  destructive 
in  Mississippi  and  elsewhere,  not  yet  having  done  serious 
damage.  About  the  last  of  May,  the  time  the  Spanish  fly 
may  be  looked  for,  it  is  well  to  go  over  the  patch  early  every 
morning,  as  they  invariably  fly  at  night,  and  always  settle  in 
a  bunch  over  a  few  plants  at  first.  They  can  then  be  easily 
driven  into  the  furrows  and  covered  with  earth  by  the  spade 
and  tramped ;  or,  if  two  teaspoonfuls  of  Paris  green  are  well 
stirred  in  a  bucket  of  water  and  sprayed  over  the  few  affected 
plants,  most  of  the  flies  will  eat  and  die. 

As  to  picking,  packing,  etc.,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say 
more  than  that  it  always  pays  to  put  good,  sound  fruit  of  uni- 
form size  and  ripeness  in  the  same  box,  and  except  very  early, 
ship  only  first-class  fruit. 

I  will  now  close  my  remarks  on  the  tomato  with  an  account 
of  a  most  remarkable  instance  of  the  effects  of  electricity  on 
vegetable  life,  a  parallel  to  which  I  have  never  heard  or  read 
of.  As  the  electricity  could  not  have  acted  directly  on  the 
tomato  plants,  seeing  that  those  on  the  opposite  side  of  a 
fence  were  unhurt,  there  is  only  one  solution,  viz.,  the  almost 
instantaneous  generation  of  millions  of  bacteria  in  the  sap 
and  leaves  of  the  plants,  somewhat  similar  to  blight  in  the 
pear.  The  effect  of  such  an  excessive  application  of  ammonia 
to  the  soil,  and  so  little  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  in  pro- 
portion, was  evidently  to  produce  a  peculiar  sensitive,  per- 
haps attenuated,  so  to  say,  state  of  the  sap,  upon  which  the 
electricity  acted  as  a  disorganizer,  by  furnishing  the  proper 
conditions  for  the  rapid  development  of  the  tomato  bacteria, 
just  as  a  sudden  lowering  of  the  temperature  in  the  winter, 
when  the  sap  happens  to  be  in  motion,  affords  the  most  fa- 
vorable conditions  for  those  of  the  pear.  But  to  the  facts. 
A  few  years  after  embarking  in  the  business,  and  the  first 
time  I  ever  used  cotton  seed  as  a  fertilizer,  having  bought  ten 
tons  of  damaged  whole  seed  very  cheap,  and  ignorant  of  the 
true  principles  of  fertilizing,  I  undertook  to  grow  an  acre  of 
tomatoes,  to  which  I  had  applied  three  tons  of  whole  seed 
and  plowed  them  in  well.  The  plants  made  a  most  phenom- 
enal growth,  running  and  climbing  all  over  each  other,  more 


THE     TOMATO.  45 

like  vines  than  bushes,  until  they  formed  a  tangled  mass  sev- 
eral feet  deep,  to  my  astonishment  and  disgust.  I  do  not 
remember  of  gathering  as  much  as  a  dozen  bushels  of  fruit 
from  the  whole  acre,  the  plants  bloomingly  profusely,  but 
dropping  them  as  fast  as  they  formed.  About  the  time  the 
few  that  did  set  began  to  ripen,  the  severest  thunder  storm 
I  ever  witnessed  passed  over  Galveston  Island,  several 
houses  near  by  being  struck,  and  two  persons  killed  a  short 
distance  away,  by  the  lightning.  The  whole  air  was  filled  for 
a  short  time  with  a  sulphurous  smell,  and  after  a  tremendous 
down-pour  of  an  hour,  a  yellow  deposit  greatly  resembling 
sulphur  appeared  in  many  places  on  the  ground.  The 
tomato  patch  was  just  in  front  of  my  house,  and  as  soon  as 
the  rain  ceased,  though  the  lightning  was  still  vivid,  I 
opened  the  door  and  looked  out.  I  was  at  once  struck  with 
the  peculiar  and  slightly  ashy  hue  that  the  plants  all  had,  and 
walked  over  for  a  closer  examination.  To  my  amazement, 
while  I  stood  there  looking  intently  at  the  leaves,  I  saw  them 
slowly  turning  to  a  dark  gray,  and  gradually  twist  and  curl 
until  the  whole  ground  was  visible,  when  before  the  storm,  it 
was  totally  hidden  by  the  luxuriant  mass  of  green.  This 
transformation  occupied  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  it  was  complete.  The  next  day  the  sun 
came  out  hot,  and  by  night  every  plant  was  dead,  and  the 
stems  brown.  But  the  strangest  thing  was,  that  immediately 
adjoining  my  patch,  and  just  over  a  fence,  my  father-in-law 
also  had  half  an  acre  of  tomatoes,  the  ground  having  been 
fertilized  the  year  before,  but  not  at  all  that  season.  The 
vines  had  made  an  ordinary,  healthy  growth,  were  loaded  with 
fruit,  and  showed  not  a  sign  of  damage. 

Is  it  not  probable  that  a  great  deal  of  the  rust,  blight 
and  fungoid  disease  that  attack  farm  and  field  crops,  as  well 
as  fruits  and  vegetables,  is  due  to  intensified  electrical  con- 
ditions? 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

The  Onion. 

THE  cultivation  of  this  popular  vegetable  differs  consider- 
ably in  the  various  sections  of  the  country,  and  I  will 
only  undertake  to  describe  the  methods  best  adapted  to 
the  gulf  coast  country,  extending  around  to  Florida.  As  for 
everything  else,  it  is  well  to  apply  manure  freely  for  onions, 
and  especially  the  elements  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash, 
for  it  is  a  crop  that  requires  a  good  deal  of  painstaking  labor, 
and  it  will  not  do  to  run  the  risk  of  failure.  T*ens  of  thou- 
sands of  bushels  are  annually  grown  around  New  Orleans,  where 
they  mature,  as  they  do  here,  at  the  best  time  to  strike  a  good 
northern  market  in  spring.  The  variety  used  there  almost 
exclusively  is  the  Creole,  which  has  been  grown  time  out  of 
mind,  and  has  proved  the  best  there  as  well  as  here.  Both  the 
Red  and  White  Bermuda  are  good,  but  do  not  keep  or  ship 
near  as  well  as  the  Creole.  The  Prize  Taker  has  also  given 
very  fine  onions  this  season,  and  is  well  worthy  of  further  trial. 
The  seeds  are  best  sown  in  this  section  from  the  ist  of 
October  to  the  I5th  of  November,  in  well  manured  beds, 
which  should  be  made  up  some  time  ahead,  and  raked  over 
several  times  after  showers,  to  kill  the  weed  seeds.  If  much 
ground  is  to  be  planted,  it  is  best  to  prepare  a  large  bed. 
The  seeds  should  be  sown  rather  shallow,  and  covered  by 
hand  with  soil,  which,  after  being  watered  well,  must  be 
shaded  with  moss  from  the  woods  or  clean  old  hay,  free  from 
weed  seeds.  In  four  or  five  days  they  will  come  up,  when  the 
covering  must  be  removed  at  once.  Nothing  more  is  neces- 
sary, except  to  keep  clean  until  the  plants  are  large  enough 
to  be  set  out.  The  ground,  as  well  as  the  seed-bed,  should 
have  been  prepared  a  month  or  so  ahead,  for  it  happens  oc- 
casionally that  heavy  rains  occur  in  the  fall,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  prepare  the  land.  This,  in  fact,  applies  to  all  fall  and 

(46) 


THE     ONION.  47 

winter  crops  where  land  is  at  all  level,  and  I  will  again  re- 
peat, that  it  is  best,  by  far,  to  plant  all  crops,  at  this  season 
especially,  on  good,  high  beds  and  ridges.  Never  risk  any- 
thing flat,  for  growth  has  to  be  made  during  the  short,  cool 
winter  days,  and  the  plants  require  all  the  heat  they  can  get. 

Onion  beds  here  are  generally  made  about  four  feet  wide, 
and  the  rows  across  the  beds  about  one  foot  apart,  as  this  is 
most  convenient  for  setting  from  each  side.  The  plants  are 
set  when  about  the  size  of  a  quill,  and  should  have  half  the 
tops  sheared  off  before  digging,  and  all  the  roots  cut  back  to 
one-half  inch  or  less.  A  crop  thus  treated,  especially  if  the 
sets  are  rather  large,  will  do  far  better  than  when  planted 
with  long  roots.  About  four  inches  apart  in  the  rows  is  a 
good  distance. 

By  this  method  of  onion  growing,  a  world  of  work  in 
weeding  and  thinning  is  saved,  for  two  acres  can  be  set  and 
worked,  where  one  could  be  grown  from  seed  and  thinned. 
Just  who  originated  this  method  of  growing  onions  in  the 
Gulf  States,  nobody  can  now  remember,  as  it  has  been  the 
common,  in  fact  the  only,  plan  since  long  before  the  war. 
In  January,  1863,  I  remember  well  seeing  five  acres  thus 
planted  in  this  county,  at  Lamarque,  which  made  an  immense 
crop,  for  which,  rumor  had  it,  the  owner  received  $5,000,  as 
there  were  no  onions  in  this  country  at  that  time.  And  yet, 
in  the  face  of  this  well-known  fact  in  the  South,  an  author  of 
New  York  a  few  years  ago  came  out  with  his  new  discovery 
in  onion  growing,  and  has  published  a  pamphlet,  with  these 
directions  as  new,  that  have  been  practiced  here  for  thirty 
years  to  my  certain  knowledge  ! 

As  to  cultivation  of  the  onion,  as  long  as  the  ground  is 
clean,  the  less  the  better  in  winter.  The  onion  makes  roots 
close  to  the  top  of  the  ground  as  it  grows  larger,  and  deep 
working  is  very  injurious.  As  noted  elsewhere,  a  clean, 
smooth  surface  in  winter  absorbs  far  more  heat  than  one  that 
is  cultivated,  and  heat  is  the  all-important  thing.  I  saw 
to-day,  the  24th  of  February,  while  on  a  visit  to  Hitch- 
cock, a  most  beautiful  and  vigorous  field  of  onions,  that  have 
never  had  a  moment's  work  since  shortly  after  they  were 


48  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

set  out  last  fall.  Of  course,  it  will  be  hard  to  make  the  ma- 
jority of  my  readers  in  other  sections  swallow  this  doctrine 
just  yet,  but  if  they  will  only  give  it  a  fair  trial  in  the  South 
during  winter,  and  in  early  spring  at  the  North,  they  will  find 
it  true.  This  whole  method  of  transplanting  onions,  it  must 
be  remembered,  is  only  adapted  to  winter  culture  here,  our 
climate  being  entirely  too  hot  to  make  a  success  of  it  in 
spring,  though  it  seems  to  be  perfectly  successful  at  that  sea- 
son everywhere  at  the  North.  For  those  who  have  extra  clean 
ground,  however,  and  are  willing  to  give  extra  pains  and 
work,  I  am  bound  to  say  the  old  plan,  from  seed,  will  nearly 
always  make  much  the  earliest  and  largest  onions,  and  sev- 
eral good  growers  here  are  adopting  it.  By  sowing  moder- 
ately thin  with  a  seed  drill,  on  very  rich  soil,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  fully  double  the  number  of  bushels  can  be  grown  on  the 
same  area  as  by  the  transplanting  method,  for  on  such  soils 
I  have  seen  onions  develop  to  full  market  size,  when  they 
were  so  close  as  to  look  as  if  they  were  piled  upon  one  an- 
other. Every  one  should  try  a  small  planting,  at  least,  from 
seed,  as  the  onion  is  a  sure  money  crop  here. 

For  the  interior  of  Texas,  where  the  winters  are  consider- 
ably colder  than  on  the  coast,  I  know  of  several  growers  who 
make  large  crops  of  fine  onions  every  year  by  sowing  the  seed 
thickly  in  rows  about  a  foot  apart,  in  March  or  early  in  April, 
in  rather  poor  soil.  When  the  tops  die  down  then  pull  up 
and  hang  in  a  cool,  dry  place  in  sacks,  or  spread  out  under  a 
house,  but  keep  dry.  Prepare  and  manure  the  ground 
thoroughly  in  September,  and  plant  the  sets  in  October,  as 
directed  above  for  plants  here,  and  about  the  first  of  May  the 
crop  will  mature  fine,  large  onions.  The  Silver  King  thus 
treated  will  grow  to  a  very  large  size,  and  perhaps  the 
Prize  Taker  would  give  equally  good  results.  This  method 
could  be  practiced  with  equal  success  with  the  Creole  variety 
here,  I  presume,  unless  the  plants  should  shoot  to  seed  in. 
spring  more  readily. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Melons  and  Cucumbers. 

AS  thousands  of  acres  are  annually  devoted  to  these 
plants,  and  as  the  profits  largely  depend  on  the  earli- 
ness  of  the  crop,  any  method  by  which  an  increased 
earliness  can  be  economically  secured  is  well  worthy  the  at- 
tention of  growers.  While  the  common  plan  of  boxes  and 
glass  answers  well,  boxes  are  not  only  clumsy  to  handle  and 
pack  away  every  year,  but  the  cost  of  material,  labor  and 
handling  is  quite  an  item.  Many  years  ago,  realizing  these 
facts,  I  hit  upon  a  plan  that  answers  much  better  than  the 
wooden  box.  The  glass,  once  bought,  if  carefully  handled, 
will  last  a  long  time.  The  accompaning  cut,  page  50,  shows 
how  it  is  done.  A  10x12  glass  is  large  enough,  and  a  pattern 
box  4  inches  deep  and  7x9  inches,  is  made  of  dressed  lumber, 
the  smooth  side  being  out,  to  prevent  soil  from  adhering. 
This  has  neither  top  or  bottom,  and  after  ridges  about  three 
feet  wide  have  been  thrown  up  at  the  proper  distances,  and 
smoothed  off  ready  for  the  seed,  the  frame  is  placed  on  the 
center,  the  damp  soil  drawn  up  around  it  to  the  top  and  well 
pressed  by  hand,  leaving  a  hollow  hill  four  inches  deep  and 
about  four  inches  wide  on  top  all  around  from  the  edge  of 
the  box  to  where  it  slopes  down.  After  firming  well  on  top 
with  a  smooth  piece  of  plank,  so  that  the  hill  will  not  settle 
or  run  after  heavy  rains,  lift  the  frame  out  and  the  ground  is 
ready  for  the  seeds,  which  are  to  be  planted  rather  shallow  in 
the  bottom.  A  pane  of  10  x  12  glass  is  then  laid  over  the 
hole,  resting  on  the  surface  of  the  hole  or  future  hill.  By 
gently  pressing  the  glass  down  the  air  can  be  entirely  exclu- 
ded, and  seed  can  be  thus  planted  long  before  the  usual  time. 
They  come  up  very  quickly,  and  incur  no  danger  from  cut- 
worms or  other  insects,  or  from  a  freeze,  as  the  natural 
warmth  of  the  earth  will  always  carry  melon  or  cucumber 
4— HORT. 


5° 


THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 


Box  Frame,  reedy  for  use. 


Melon  Box,  with  glass  cover. 
EARTH  OR  MKLON  BOX.     See  page  49. 


MELONS     AND     CUCUMBERS.  5! 

plants  through  any  cold  spell,  even  one  that  would  kill  plants 
in  a  box  with  glass  on  it,  for  it  can  never  be  made  air-tight, 
like  the  earth  box.  After  the  seeds  come  up,  the  glass  should 
be  drawn  down  half  way  in  good  weather,  until  the  third 
leaf  is  out,  to  prevent  running  up  ;  then  thin  out  to  a  stand, 
to  prevent  crowding.  In  all  cold,  chilly  and  rainy  weather 
keep  the  glass  down  tight,  and  never  leave  a  crack  at  night. 
When  all  danger  is  over  and  the  vines  crowd  the  hole,  level 
down  and  stick  the  pane  of  glass  slanting  over  the  plants  on 
the  north  side.  This  will  entirely  break  any  ordinary  frost. 

As  to  the  proper  fertilizing  for  melons,  I  have  alluded  to  it, 
and  especially  the  need  for  potash,  in  my  powder  article  on 
cabbage.  Bone  meal,  or  a  good  complete  fertilizer,  will  give, 
with  plenty  of  potash,  a  much  sweeter  and  better  netted 
cantalope  than  barnyard  manure  or  cotton-seed  meal,  and 
mature  the  crop  earlier.  I  have  never  seen  any  mention 
made  of  the  fact  that  a  free  use  of  ammonia  will  cause  canta- 
lopes  to  become  smooth  and  net  poorly,  but  it  is  a  fact  that 
it  does  have  that  effect,  as  well  as  to  make  the  quality  very 
much  inferior,  and  also  causes  them  to  split  open  more 
easily  at  the  blossom  end.  I  have  time  and  again  tested  the 
effect  of  pinching  the  ends  to  increase  earliness  and  produc- 
tiveness, but  with  no  adequate  advantage. 

While  the  watermelon  is  not  liable  to  rot  on  the  under 
side  in  wet  seasons,  thousands  of  cantalopes  are  lost  from  this 
cause,  even  in  seasons  of  ordinary  moisture.  It  is  always 
best,  when  the  fruit  is  about  half  grown  or  larger,  to  go  over 
and  pick  the  melons  out  of  the  little  nests  they  make  them- 
selves by  settling  after  rain,  and  place  them  on  the  firm 
ground  nearby,  but  always  with  the  same  side  exposed  to  the 
sun,  as  the  skin  quickly  blisters  in  hot  weather  if  the  tender 
under  side  is  turned  up.  The  great  enemies  of  melons  and 
cucumbers  are  lice,  and  they  are  so  difficult  to  kill,  and  spread 
so  rapidly,  that  the  best  plan  by  all  odds  is  to  keep  a  sharp 
lookout,  and  remove  promptly  every  affected  plant.  Whale- 
oil  soap,  as  well  as  the  kerosene  emulsion,  will  kill  them 
while  the  plants  are  young,  but  I  never  knew  them  to  fail 
to  come  back  later  on  the  same  plant.  Prompt  removal  is  by 


52  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

far  the  safer  plan.  For  market,  especially  distant  ones,  it 
will  not  pay  to  grow  large  cantalopes.  The  small,  solid,  well- 
netted  ones  sell  for  as  much  and  weigh  far  less.  Remember 
that  it  is  useless  to  try  to  grow  good  crops  of  either  canta- 
lopes or  watermelons  year  after  year  on  the  same  ground, 
unless  potash  in  some  form  is  liberally  supplied  each  crop, 
and  a  good  supply  of  vegetable  matter  turned  under.  Potash 
is  the  element  in  new  ground  that  makes  it  so  well  adapted 
to  melons,  and  it  must  be  supplied,  and  if  freely,  then  melons 
can  be  grown  year  after  year  with  perfect  success,  the  oft- 
quoted  and  common  notion  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 


CHAPTER    X. 

The  Potato. 

OINCE  the  introduction  of  the  Triumph  potato,  with  its 
peculiarity  of  making  a  good  fail  crop  from  home-grown 
spring  seed,  the  Irish  potato  is  likely  to  come  more 
prominently  to  the  front  as  a  money  crop  in  the  far  South. 
One  drawback  heretofore  has  been,  that  it  required  a  consid- 
erable outlay  for  the  seed  every  year.  Now,  experience 
shows  that  we  can  grow  our  own  seed  in  the  fall,  and  when 
planted  in  spring,  even  the  smallest  sized  tubers  will  yield 
more  potatoes  by  far  than  the  old  northern  varieties.  While 
I  am  a  crank  on  potash  for  most  things,  I  am  bound  to  admit 
that  additional  applications  of  it  have  shown  no  appreciable 
effect  on  Irish  potatoes  here.  Evidently  the  coast  country  of 
Texas  has  potash  enough  to  satisfy  this  crop  for  some  years. 
The  very  best  yield  I  ever  had  was  from  my  orchard  ground 
at  Hitchcock  the  first  year,  to  which  one  ton  per  acre  of  cot- 
ton-seed meal  was  applied  broadcast  in  November,  the  ground 
plowed  a  second  time  in  February,  and  planted  about  the  ifth. 
That  was  a  remarkable  yield,  and  not  a  very  good  season 
either,  as  it  turned  out  very  dry  toward  the  end.  But,  as 
elsewhere  remarked,  manure  is  water  and  tillage,  for  very 
rich  ground  will  nearly  always  make  a  good  crop  with  little 
of  either. 

As  to  the  best  time  to  plant,  it  is  all  a  gamble.  This 
season  the  early  January  settings  came  through  all  right. 
Last  year  they  were  killed  and  rotted.  If  we  grow  our  own 
seed,  however,  every  one  should  risk  a  barrel  or  two  early, 
on  good,  high  ground,  and  as  the  tops  push  through,  draw 
the  soil  up  several  times  to  keep  them  well  under.  Then, 
if  a  freeze  does  come,  and  the  patch  is  gone  over  promptly 
the  next  morning,  and  the  plants  are  cut  off  an  inch  under 
the  surface,  they  will  quickly  come  again.  If  left,  however, 

(53) 


54  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

the  frosted  sap  will  rot  the  stems  down  to  the  sets,  and  often 
the  set  itself.  The  Triumph  outyields  all  other  potatoes 
here,  and  every  one  should  grow  at  least  enough  for  his  own 
use.  The  only  trouble  with  fall  planting  is  the  risk  of  drouth. 
The  seed  should  be  laid  away  thinly  in  a  cool  place  to  sprout, 
and  by  August  will  be  ready  if  the  ground  is  in  good  order. 
They  should  go  into  the  ground  in  August,  and  the  man  who 
has  a  good  windmill  and  well  is  sure  of  a  crop.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  doubt  that  the  Michel  strawberry,  treated  as  de- 
scribed elsewhere,  and  the  Triumph  potato  in  the  fall,  would 
both  yield  an  absolutely  certain  and  highly  remunerative  crop 
to  any  one  who  will  furnish  a  reasonable  supply  of  water  for 
irrigation.  As  a  preventive  to  scab,  one  ounce  of  corrosive 
sublimate  dissolved  in  about  five  gallons  of  water,  and  the 
potatoes  immersed  for  two  hours,  is  recommended,  though  I 
have  never  tried  it. 

The  culture  of  the  sweet  potato  is  so  well  known  that 
little  need  be  said  except  as  to  fertilizing  and  the  potato 
worm.  While  ordinary  soil  will  make  a  fair  crop,  no  vege- 
table appreciates  rich  ground  more  highly.  During  my  last 
year  at  Hitchcock  I  opened  three  experimental  furrows,  and 
used  equal  quantities  of  cotton-seed  hull  ashes  and  cotton- 
seed meal  and  the  New  Orleans  ammoniated  phosphate,  put- 
ting each  by  itself  in  the  bottoms  of  the  furrows,  and  stirring 
well  with  a  bull  tongue,  after  which  high  ridges  were  bedded 
up  on  them.  This  is  all-important  for  the  sweet  potato;  no 
matter  how  dry  the  weather,  ridge  up  high,  for  the  feeding 
roots  run  very  deep.  The  result  of  the  above  experiment  was 
to  prove  that  potash  and  phosphoric  acid  are  the  special  fer- 
tilizers for  sweet  potatoes,  the  row  with  the  hull  ashes,  con- 
taining 8  per  cent,  phosphoric  acid  and  30  per  cent,  potash, 
not  only  producing  the  most  but  the  largest  tubers,  though 
both  the  other  fertilizers  gave  an  excellent  yield.  The  meal 
on  new  land  is  hard  to  beat.  Next,  as  a  preventive  to  the 
worm  that  bores  into  the  potatoes  when  grown,  the  best  plan 
is  to  set  the  vines  quite  deep,  and  after  every  rain  sprinkle  a 
little  air-slacked  lime  ovej  each  hill,  immediately  around  the 
stem  of  the  vines  where  they  enter  the  ground.  All  moths 


THE    POTATO.  55 

have  a  dread  of  lime,  and  will  not  lay  their  eggs  near  it,  and, 
as  is  well  known,  this  moth  lays  hers  just  at  the  surface,  the 
young  worms  afterwards  boring  into  and  down  through  the 
stems  to  the  tubers  below.  But  while  the  worm  does  a  great 
deal  of  injury,  the  growers  themselves  are  responsible  for 
much  more  every  year  by  not  digging  their  crops  in  the  month 
of  October,  which  is  usually  dry.  Dug  that  month,  potatoes 
will  keep  better  than  after  the  vines  are  killed  by  frost,  and 
all  risk  of  rotting  from  the  heavy,  cold  rains  of  November  is 
avoided.  The  present  crop  was  almost  entirely  lost  in  the 
ground  from  rot,  caused  by  the  heavy  rains  of  that  month. 
As  the  method  of  banking  is  so  well  known,  if  is  not  neces- 
sary to  allude  to  it  here. 


CHAPTER   XL 

Celery. 

IN  mild  seasons  like  the  present,  celery  can  be  grown  to  as 
great  perfection  in  the  coast  country  of  Texas  and  the 
Gulf  States  as  anywhere  in  the  world,  and  to-day,  the 
25th  of  February,  the  Galveston  News  was  presented  with  a 
lot  that  measured  34  inches  in  length,  perfectly  bleached 
and  of  most  excellent  quality.  Its  culture  here  is  just  as 
elsewhere,  only  the  seed  should  be 'well  shaded  if  sown  in  Au- 
gust, when  some  persons  plant,  though  September  is  a  better 
month,  and  from  then  on  to  December  seed  may  be  sown,  and 
will  make  finely  in  spring.  It  will  greatly  facilitate  the  com- 
ing up  of  the  earlier  plantings  if  the  seeds  are  soaked  in 
water  a  few  hours,  and  then  put  up  in  a  cloth  with  a  few 
handfuls  of  soil,  to  sprout  for  a  week.  The  late  sowings  must 
be  made  in  coldframes,  and  carefully  protected  in  severe 
weather,  which  sometimes  occurs  here,  and  does  serious  dam- 
age to  mature  crops  also.  The  latter  can  be  perfectly  pro- 
tected by  going  to  the  small  expense  of  8  or  lo-inch  planks, 
to  be  laid  flat  on  top  of  the  rows  in  case  of  a  freeze,  after 
the  plants  have  had  their  last  hilling.  However,  the  young 
and  half-grown  ones,  where  exposed,  even  if  cut  down  to  the 
ground,  will  shoot  out  quickly  again,  and  make  fine  celery  in 
the  end.  In  earthing  up,  it  is  necessary  to  be  careful,  and 
never  handle  the  plants  when  they  are  wet  with  dew  or  rain, 
else  they  are  likely  to  take  the  rust,  which  is  about  the  only 
enemy  the  crop  has  here.  Of  course,  rich  ground  is  just  as 
important  for  this  as  other  crops.  Close  planting  each  way  is 
not  suited  here,  as  it  would  require  flat  culture,  and  the  plants 
could  not  be  protected  from  the  cold,  as  can  that  grown  in 
rows  by  the  old  method.  Settings  may  be  made  all  through 
the  fall  and  winter,  and  prices  are  always  good  for  this  crop, 
as  it  stands  shipping  well. 

(56) 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Lettuce. 

vegetable  can  be  grown  in  great  perfection  here  in 
!  the  fall,  and  many  seasons  all  through  the  winter  and 
spring.  But  it  is  almost  useless  to  sow  the  seed  before 
the  first  of  September  for  fall  planting,  as  the  green  worms 
are  very  troublesome  on  a  crop  set  out  earlier,  and  the  plants 
are  almost  sure  to  run  to  seed  before  heading.  The  seed  for 
earliest  sowing  should  be  mixed  with  a  little  earth  and  tied 
up  in  a  rag  to  sprout,  after  being  well  dampened.  As  soon 
as  signs  of  sprouting  show,  scatter  soil  and  seed  over  the  bed 
and  water  in  with  a  sprinkler,  after  which  cover  lightly  with 
fine  soil  and  put  down  the  mosquito-bar  over  the  frame, 
which  should  be  made  just  as  for  cabbage.  However,  as  the 
ants  often  carry  off  lettuce  seed  very  rapidly,  it  is  well  to 
sow  a  few  handfuls  of  fine  grits,  sifted  bran  or  meal,  as  a  bait, 
over  the  bed,  before  putting  on  the  bar.  Be  sure  to  make  it 
fit  very  close  all  around,  for  if  there  is  the  slightest  open- 
ing, the  moths  will  find  it  and  get  in.  Seed  can  be  sown  all 
through  the  fall  in  the  gulf  coast  country,  but  when  planted 
in  December  and  January,  it  should  be  well  protected  in  case 
of  a  freeze.  The  most  profitable  crop  is  the  one  thus  treated 
and  planted  out  the  last  of  January  for  the  upper  country 
markets,  and  even  for  points  beyond  Texas.  The  best  pre- 
ventive against  the  green  worm  in  fall,  I  omitted  to  state,  is 
air-slaked  lime,  dusted  occasionally  over  the  plants  after  set- 
ting in  the  field.  This  worm,  however,  disappears  after 
November. 

The  old  Royal  Cabbage  lettuce  is  about  the  best  variety. 


(57) 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

Asparagus. 

WHILE  this  is  one  of  the  most  important  and  profitable 
crops  at  the  North,  it  has  been  greatly  neglected  by 
southern  truckers.  But  I  believe  it  is  destined  in  the 
near  future  to  be  the  principal  vegetable  grown  for  shipping 
from  the  far  South  during  the  season  of  its  maturity,  seeing 
that  it  comes  in  just  with  the  early  strawberry  crop,  and  con- 
tinues right  along  with  it  in  Florida,  Texas  and  Louisiana. 
The  great  value  of  asparagus  to  this  whole  strawberry  section 
is  that  it  can  be  utilized  to  divide  car  loads  with  the  berries, 
and  thus  prevent  throwing  a  whole  car  load  of  the  latter  on 
any  one  market  at  the  same  time.  While  not  so  popular  at 
the  South  as  in  the  North,  yet  our  home  markets  have  never 
yet  been  even  half-way  supplied,  and  there  is  no  reasonable 
fear  that  there  will  for  many  years  be  a  glut  of  this  delicious 
vegetable  anywhere.  That  it  can  be  successfully  grown  here 
has  been  fully  demonstated  time  and  again,  and  a  really 
excellent  article  has  been  on  the  market  in  Galveston  the 
present  season,  while  it  is  well-known  that  the  common  wild 
asparagus  grows  everywhere  in  South  Texas  with  the  per- 
sistency and  vigor  of  a  weed.  The  only  fault  so  far  found 
with  this  vegetable,  as  grown  in  the  gulf  coast  region,  is  its 
failure  to  develop  shoots  of  the  thickness  and  size  they  attain 
farther  north.  This  probably  comes  more  from  a  lack  of  plenty 
of  salt  and  a  sufficient  quantity  of  manure,  as  well  as  deep, 
loose  soil,  than  anything  else.  While  I  have  never  grown 
any,  I  have  taken  the  trouble  to  look  into  the  subject  with 
care,  and  will  sum  up  my  conclusions  from  the  experience  of 
others.  In  France,  where  they  grow  it  to  great  perfection, 
the  earth  is  scraped  away  every  fall  from  the  crowns,  in  order 
to  expose  them  to  freezing,  while  in  America,  at  the  North, 
the  almost  universal  custom  is  to  protect  them  by  a  heavy 

(53) 


ASPARAGUS.  59 

mulch  of  manure,  both  claiming  that  their  respective  methods 
make  the  largest  stalks  ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  with 
this  crop  that  both  its  eating  and  market  value  increase  very 
rapidly  with  the  size  and  beauty  of  the  individual  shoots. 
The  French  plant  the  roots  about  two  feet  apart  each  way, 
and  rather  shallow,  on  deeply  dug  and  very  rich  ground. 
They  then  manure  heavily  and  repeatedly,  to  furnish  a  loose 
surface  soil,  to  force  an  abnormally  large,  quick  growth. 
Americans  recommend  planting  the  crowns  six  inches  deep  to 
escape  drought,  and  both  parties  are  very  particular  to  advise 
the  old  fallacy  of  spreading  out  the  roots.  This  may  be  one 
of  the  causes  of  its  failure  to  make  as  large  shoots  here  as 
elsewhere,  for  it  has  enormous  roots,  and  if  all  have  been 
spread  out  as  directed,  there  is  little  wonder  if  the  plants 
lacked  vigor  enough  to  develop  strong,  thick  stems.  By  all 
means  root-prune  this  plant  very  closely,  for  it  is  a  difficult 
thing  to  kill  if  you  try  ;  but  it  must  have  deep,  strong  roots 
and  plenty  of  moisture  to  sustain  the  forced  growth  that  is 
demanded  of  it.  Both  nations  agree  that  any  good  garden 
soil  will  do,  but  it  must  be  light  and  loamy  on  top  for  at  least 
six  or  eight  inches,  to  allow  the  shoots  to  push  readily  through, 
and  also  to  facilitate  breaking  off  from  the  crowns.  It  is 
claimed  that  cutting  injures  other  young  shoots  often,  and 
also  leaves  a  short  stump,  from  which  smaller  sprouts  spring 
and  exhaust  the  plant.  In  gathering,  the  loose  soil  is  gently 
drawn  away  and  the  shoot  selected,  bent  over  and  broken 
squarely  off  from  the  crown.  The  hole  is  filled  with  a  move- 
ment of  the  hand,  and  so  on  over  the  patch.  Many,  how- 
ever, still  adhere  to  the  old  plan  of  cutting.  Both  nations 
are  fully  agreed  on  the  importance  of  perfect  drainage,  the 
crop  maturing,  as  it  does  so  early,  while  the  ground  is  cold  ; 
therefore  well  drained  soil  is  a  necessity  for  rapid  growth. 
Both  also  agree  on  a  deep,  rich  plant-bed,  down  below  the 
crown.  On  high,  well  drained  upland,  it  would  be  best, 
they  say,  to  plow  very  deep,  manure  heavily,  and  apply  at 
least  three  tons  of  salt  per  acre,  in  addition  to  other  manures. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  a  saline  plant,  and  per- 
fectly at  home  along  the  sea  coast  marshes.  As  to  distance, 


00  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

as  noted  above,  in  France  they  set  from  two  to  three  feet 
apart  each  way.  In  California  and  other  parts  of  this  coun- 
try, they  prefer  to  make  the  rows  from  four  to  six  feet  apart 
and  plant  about  sixteen  inches  in  the  rows,  thus  leaving  room 
enough  to  cultivate  other  crops  between  for  a  year  or  two,  un- 
til the  plants  require  all  the  ground.  The  surface  is  kept 
level  during  the  summer,  but  just  before  growth  starts  in 
spring  a  good-sized  ridge  or  mound  of  soft  earth  is  thrown  or 
drawn  up  over  the  crowns  to  furnish  the  necessary  depth  of 
loose  soil  for  bleaching  the  shoots,  which  is  to  be  drawn  down 
level  again  after  the  crop  is  marketed. 

If  it  be  proposed  to  save  time,  one  or  two-year-old  plants 
can  be  bought,  the  Conover  Colossal  and  the  newer  Palmetto 
seeming  to  be  the  favorite  kinds,  the  latter  claiming  to  be 
somewhat  the  earlier  variety.  If  one  is  willing  to  wait,  four 
pounds  of  seed  will  grow  plants  enough  for  an  acre,  and  the 
plants  are  easily  raised.  As  for  the  immediate  level  coast 
country  between  Galveston  and  Houston,  I  would  recommend, 
in  addition  to  the  above  suggestions,  that  beds  twelve  feet 
wide  be  thrown  up  finally,  with  wide  and  deep  furrows  or 
paths  between,  and  see  that  these  open  into  a  free  outlet  for 
perfect  drainage.  It  will  be  necessary  to  complete  the  work 
with  the  spade,  so  as  to  make  the  beds  sufficiently  high. 
There  is  no  danger  of  hurting  an  asparagus  plant  seriously 
with  drouth,  for  its  roots  will  easily  penetrate  to  permanent 
moisture.  The  nearness  of  that  to  the  surface  here  makes 
ours  a  natural  asparagus  country.  The  beds  will  then  hold 
two  rows  at  six  feet  apart,  with  plants  sixteen  inches  in  the 
rows,  and  should  be  planted  not  deeper  than  five  inches  below 
the  surface,  in  a  shallow  furrow,  to  be  left  open  until  they 
become  well  established  and  growing  freely,  when  the  ground 
should  be  leveled.  Perhaps  if  the  twelve-feet  bed  is  full 
high  and  well  drained,  they  might  be  set  the  five  inches  depth 
on  the  level  at  once,  though  the  growth  would  be  slower  at 
first.  The  distance  of  six  feet  between  the  rows  will  afford 
abundant  earth  for  placing  loosely  over  the  crowns  every 
spring  for  bleaching.  It  would  be  an  excellent  plan  to  pre- 
pare the  ground  for  strawberries,  thoroughly  fertilizing  and 


ASPARAGUS.  6l 

mulching  the  entire  beds  in  the  summer,  and  set  with  straw- 
berries in  September,  leaving  the  two  asparagus  lines  or  rows 
vacant  until  winter  or  spring,  when  convenient  to  plant  them. 
This  would  necessitate  the  application  of  salt,  the  first  year 
or  two,  only  on  the  asparagus  rows,  or  until  they  required  the 
whole  ground.  The  vegetable  crop  could  by  this  plan  be 
brought  to  marketing  condition  at  little  or  no  extra  expense, 
for  full  crops  of  berries  could  be  grown.  After  the  asparagus 
came  into  full  bearing  the  expense  would  be  very  light,  as 
the  tops  shade  the  ground  all  the  summer,  and  could  be 
mowed  off  every  fall  and  thrown  for  bedding  in  the  cow  lot  to 
make  manure.  I  omitted  to  say,  that  the  heavy  mulching  of 
the  berries  the  first  two  years  would  render  the  whole  surface 
of  the  beds  light  and  loose,  for  after-covering  of  the  aspara- 
gus crowns. 

This  plant  is  exceedingly  long-lived,  and  the  beds  would 
last  almost  a  life-time  with  proper  after  care  and  fertilizing, 
especially  the  latter,  for  it  seems  to  be  a  perfect  gourmand 
after  food.  I  hope  the  gulf-coast  growers  especially  will  in- 
vestigate this  subject  fully,  for  I  am  sure  it  is  one  of  the  keys  to 
the  future  prosperity  of  this  immediate  section.  The  demand 
seems  unlimited  for  a  good  article,  and  it  is  such  a  perfect 
shipper — just  pack  in  boxes,  as  for  beans — the  product  being 
sold  everywhere  by  weight,  and  at  10  cents  per  pound,  the 
minimum  price  I  have  seen  quoted  anywhere.  It  has  no 
enemies,  and  is  never  hurt  by  frost.  Reduce,  then,  the  berry 
acreage  very  largely,  and  devote  some  of  it  to  this  vegetable, 
and  with  a  moderate  supply  also  of  lettuce,  radishes,  beets, 
etc.  There  would  then  be  no  necessity  for  shipping  straight 
cars  of  berries,  and  dozens  of  towns  would  be  able  to  handle 
a  well-mixed  car,  where  one  can  now  use  a  car  of  any  one 
article  straight. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

Cow  Peas  and  other  Vegetables. 

EGG-PLANTS  and  sweet  peppers  should  be  treated  just 
as  tomatoes,  and  like  them,  must,  in  this  section,  be 
protected  from  the  ravages  of  the  Spanish  fly  by  Paris 
green,  Uii'T'tJ  '  •  \ .-'_»..'  r  Mt  -1  rr  *v  *'•  ••  •  \;  ,A«  itc  1.  Snap 
beans  are  also  a  good  crop  generally,  both  spring  and  fall,  but 
as  the  rabbits  are  very  fond  of  their  leaves,  the  vines  must  be 
lightly  sprayed  with  water  that  has  had  a  small  quantity  of 
coal  or  gas  tar  mixed  with  it,  and  then  strained  out.  A  rab- 
bit will  touch  nothing  that  has  a  trace  of  that  smell  about  it. 
It  is  almost  useless  here  to  sow  beans  before  the  first  of 
March,  if  then,  as  the  spring  winds  whip  the  vines  to  pieces. 
Green  peas  are  nearly  always  hardy  through  the  winter,  espe- 
cially if  not  in  bearing  when  a  freeze  comes.  Their  main 
enemy  is  the  black-bird,  who  is  particularly  fond  of  them,  and 
must  be  driven  off  with  a  gun.  Beets,  carrots,  spinach  and 
other  vegetables  are  so  well  understood  that  comment  is  not 
necessary. 

A  book  treating  of  crops  for  the  South  and  soil  improve- 
ment would  be  incomplete  without  a  full  mention  of  that 
wonderful  plant,  the  southern  cow  pea.  An  experience  of 
many  years'  use  has  convinced  me  and  all  who  have  tried  it 
of  its  great  value.  Every  waste  place  on  the  farm  or  in  the 
garden  which  needs  enriching  should  every  season  be  covered 
with  its  luxuriant  foliage  and  penetrated  by  its  deep,  far-reach- 
ing roots.  The  old  idea  was  to  plow  the  vines  under  green, 
and  I  practised  it  for  several  years,  but  soon  found  out  that  it 
was  a  much  better  plan  to  let  them  mature  and  die  on  the 
ground,  and  then  turn  them  under  in  the  fall.  Such  treat- 
ment will  nearly  always  cure  the  dead  or  alkali  spots,  as  well 
as  those  where  plants  turn  yellow,  that  occur  at  intervals, 
particularly  in  the  coast  country  of  Texas.  The  penetrating 

(62; 


COW     PEAS     AND     OTHER     VEGETABLES.  63 

power  of  a  cow  pea  root  is  astonishing,  and  they  will  so  com- 
pletely break  up  and  fill  such  spots  with  the  decaying  vege- 
table matter  of  their  roots,  as  well  as  leaves,  and  shade  them 
from  the  sun,  that  if  a  good  growth  of  vines  can  only  be  had 
the  spots  will  disappear  entirely.  It  will  stand  any  amount 
of  drouth  and  heat,  and  can  be  planted  any  time  after  the 
ground  gets  warm,  all  along  through  the  season,  if  rain 
enough  falls  to  bring  up  the  seed.  In  many  parts  of  the 
South  the  roots  of  the  cow  pea  are  affected  with  what  are 
known  as  nematode  galls  or  knots,  which  in  fact  are  so  com- 
mon in  all  soils  deficient  in  potash,  that  the  general  opinion 
seems  to  be  that  they  are  a  natural  condition  of  the  plant, 
and  aid  in  some  way  in  storing  up  nitrogen.  But  this  is  cer- 
tainly a  mistaken  idea,  as  far  as  the  naturalness  of  galls  on 
cow  pea  roots  in  good  land  is  concerned.  I  have  grown  cow 
peas  for  the  vegetable  matter,  on  land  well  supplied  with 
potash,  for  over  thirty  years  in  this  section,  and  have  never 
seen  a  nematode  gall  on  a  single  plant,  nor  do  I  believe  that 
they  ever  will  be  seen  on  new  land,  or  where  the  soil  is  well 
supplied  with  potash.  The  conditions  for  their  development 
are  excessive  moisture  on  a  soil  deficient"  in  potash,  and  as 
all  old  soils  are  in  that  fix  from  exhaustion,  especially  in  the 
southern  states,  these  nematode  galls  are  almost  universal, 
and  have  come  to  be  considered  a  natural  development  of  the 
plant.  But  as  I  said  above,  this  is  a  mistake,  as  any  one  can 
prove  by  planting  them  where  potash  has  been  applied.  The 
nematode  galls  are  simply  a  disease,  but  may  be  a  beneficial 
one,  for  aught  I  know. 


PART  II 


5— HORT. 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  New  Dispensation. 

IN  presenting  the  second  part  of  this  volume  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  fruit-growing  public,  I  do  it  with  a  feeling  of 
confidence  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  a  new  dispensation  of 
horticultural  truths,  and  while  they  may,  with  their  novelty, 
startle  from  their  sleepy  routine. many  of  the  high  priests  who 
minister  around  the  altars  throughout  the  country,  the  kindly 
reception  awarded  them  in  this  section  is  an  earnest  of  their 
general  adoption  everywhere  in  the  near  future.  The  public 
now  demand  the  best  of  fruit,  and  they  want  it  cheap.  The 
day  of  high  prices  has  probably  gone  forever,  and  it  is  a 
doubtful  question  whether  fruit-growing,  with  the  short-lived, 
unproductive,  diseased  and  insect-ridden  trees  of  to-day,  and 
their  uncertain  crops,  now  pays.  To  practice  the  most  ad- 
vanced methods  (taught  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Hale,  for  instance,  on 
peaches,  and  by  others  on  apples,  pears,  etc.)  requires  an 
expenditure  that  is  often  not  even  covered  by  the  receipts. 
The  amount  of  nurturing,  or  "doping,"  as  the  turfmen  call 
it  on  their  horses,  in  the  way  of  cultivation,  pruning,  thin- 
ning, fertilizing  and  spraying,  to  make  pay  an  orchard  grown 
from  three  or  four-year-old,  long,  fibrous-rooted  trees,  is 
appalling,  and  when  we  contrast  it  with  the  certain,  cheap 
and  easy-going  style  in  which  the  twenty-year-old  Rambo 
apple  tree,  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter  of  this  volume, 
brings  in  the  dollars,  we  may  well  cry,  "Hasten  the  good 
time  when  all  fruits  can  be  thus  grown  !"  That  is  the  mis- 
sion of  this  gospel  of  the  "New  Horticulture"  I  now  advo- 
cate, which,  though  nominally  new,  is  really  as  old  as  the 
morn  in  spring  in  the  long,  long  ago,  ages  before  Eve  plucked 
and  Adam  ate  the  apple,  when  the  warm  sunbeams  kissed  the 
dew  from  the  first  modestly  opening  fruit  blooms,  whenever 
that  was.  Its  principles,  from  which  we  have  now  wandered 

(67) 


68  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

so  far,  to  our  great  loss,  are  identical  with  those  practiced 
from  the  beginning  by  wise  Mother  Nature.  With  lavish 
hand  she  scattered  the  seed  that  fell  upon  the  solid  earth, 
and  produced  trees  after  their  kind,  from  which,  down  through 
the  puzzling  maze  of  ages  of  evolution  and  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,  where  her  original  forests  stand,  she  now  presents 
to  our  admiring  gaze  majestic  evidences  of  her  skill.  To  illus- 
trate those  principles  is  the  main  object  of  this  book.  Plain 
as  they  are,  I  stumbled  over  them  for  years,  like  the  rest 
of  the  horticultural  world,  blind  to  the  patent  fact  that  in  all 
their  peculiarities  of  growth  and  treatment,  both  fruit  and 
forest  trees  are  the  same.  They  are  both  the  result  of  specific 
conditions  and  surroundings.  No  fostering  hand  of  man, 
with  friendly  cultivator,  spade  or  plow,  was  present  during 
the  millions  of  years  of  their  evolution,  to  kindly  aid  in  their 
struggles  with  climatic  adversities  the  sturdy  monarchs  of 
the  forest,  which  from  the  frigid  to  the  torrid  zone,  in  slowly 
changing  cycles  of  climate,  have  crowned  the  rocky  hills  and 
mountains  and  covered  the  broad  valleys  with  their  sheltering 
boughs.  So  they  have,  through  succeeding  generations, 
adapted  themselves  perfectly  to  their  environments  by  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  and  from  age  to  age  found  in  the  firm, 
unbroken  virgin  soil,  with  no  disturbance  of  their  surface 
roots,  the  conditions  best  suited  to  their  perfect  development. 
The  same  law  applies  to  fruit  trees  as  well. 

Perhaps,  if  our  horticultural  scientists  had  their  way,  and 
through  successive  generations  of  like-minded  descendants, 
could  but  grow  fruit  trees  for  a  million  or  so  years  more,  con- 
tinuously from  long-rooted  ones,  on  ground  subsoiled  and 
deeply  pulverized,  they  might  ultimately,  like  nature,  evolve 
a  race  of  trees  that  would  prefer  and  thrive  best  on  such  a 
soil,  and  fruit  perhaps  as  well  as  Mr.  Pierce's  Rambo  apple 
tree,  alluded  to  hereafter,  or  live  as  long  as  the  old  Seckel.^r 
h  pear.  But  the  trees  we  now  have  to  deal  with 
retain  too  much  of  the  perversity  of  their  wild  parents  not  to 
kick  at  such  treatment.  The  experiments  recounted  later  on, 
of  Mr.  Patterson  and  the  sjquirrels,  and  the  stunted  pear  trees 
in  my  Hitchcock  orchard,  on  a  muck  bed,  with  two  feet  of 


THE     NEW     DISPENSATION.  69 

rich  surface  soil  beneath  them,  prove  this  beyond  all  doubt. 
Seeing,  then,  that  they  foolishly  reject  our  efforts  in  their  be- 
half, why  not,  as  it  costs  so  much  less,  and  the  trees  produce 
so  much  more  and  finer  fruit,  indulge  them  in  their  long-time 
preferences.  However,  before  entering  my  plea  for  this 
course,  I  will  in  a  short  digression  make  some  remarks  :  ist, 
on  the  old  primitive  orchards  of  our  forefathers  ;  and,  also, 
2d,  give  a  short  account  of  how  I  happened  to  hit  upon  the 
great  fundamental  principle  of  all  entirely  succcessful  horti- 
culture, that  the  nearer  we  can  bring  a  transplanted  tree  to 
the  form  of  a  seed,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  tree,  as  will 
be  seen  by  the  following  recent  extract  from  Farm  and  Ranch: 

While  viewing  the  path  of  the  recent  tornado  that  swept 
through  the  city  of  Sherman,  Texas,  destroying  scores  of  precious 
lives  and  happy  homes,  I  noticed  the  effect  of  the  force  on  the  trees. 
Some  trees  were  uprooted,  some  snapped  off  above  ground,  some 
stripped  of  limbs  and  bark  and  others  were  twisted  into  splinters. 
One  large  post  oak,  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  was  splintered  and 
twisted  like  a  huge  rope.  A  large  apple  orchard  was  uprooted,  and 
I  searched  in  vain  for  a  tap-root  on  any  of  those  apple  trees.  They 
had  the  appearance  of  being  planted  with  long  roots  and  tramped 
into  a  small  hole,  with  the  point  of  the  roots  near  the  surface  where 
they  remained  and  continued  to  grow.  The  soil  was  rich,  sandy  loam 
on  deep,  rich,  moist  clay.  The  forest  trees  were  large  and  strong,  and 
most  of  them  refused  to  be  uprooted  and  were  snapped  off.  Had 
these  trees  been  planted  so  as  to  induce  the  growth  of  strong  tap- 
roots, evidently  they  would  have  been  larger,  stronger,  healthier  and 
more  fruitful. — E.  W.  KIRKPATRICK. 


CHAPTER    II. 

Old  Primitive  Orchards. 

THERE  is  no  more  interesting  subject  for  investigation, 
nor  one  that  has  puzzled  observers  more  completely, 
than  why  we  are  unable  now  to  grow  as  healthy,  long- 
lived  and  productive  fruit  trees  as  our  forefathers.  Many 
and  various  have  been  the  theories  advanced,  but  the  most 
general  one  seems  to  be  that  in  the  early  settlement  of  the 
country  the  vast  forest  area  had  a  mysterious  and  potent  in- 
fluence on  climate  and  tree  diseases,  and  that  the  gradual 
clearing  of  the  land  has,  somehow  or  other,  changed  condi- 
tions so  radically  that  fruit  trees  in  general,  and  certain 
varieties  in  particular,  no  longer  succeed  as  they  formally  did. 
Where  once  in  the  eastern  states  the  apple  and  the  pear 
attained  the  giant  proportions  of  forest  trees,  now,  as  a 
rule,  they  crouch  and  cower  in  valley  and  on  hill,  their 
puny,  stunted,  blighting  offspring  a  pitiful  burlesque,  in 
many  instances,  of  their  grand  old  sires. 

I  came  across  a  statement  a  few  days  ago,  that  in  1721,  a 
small  ''settlement  of  forty  families  near  Boston  made  three 
thousand  barrels  of  cider,  and  another  New  England  village 
of  two  hundred  families  made  ten  thousand  barrels."  Pre- 
sumably they  reserved  fruit  enough  for  all  domestic  uses, 
fresh  and  dried,  and  this  vast  amount  of  cider  was  simply 
from  the  surplus  fruit.  Remembering  that  those  were  days 
of  small  family  orchards,  not  of  thousands  of  acres  like  we 
now  plant,  can  we  anywhere  find  a  parallel  in  productiveness 
to-day  ?  The  trees  that  gave  those  enormous  yields  were 
presumably  either  seedlings,  root  grafts  or  grown  from  small 
one-year  maiden  trees,  with  few  roots  when  set,  except  the 
tap,  and  those  doubtless  cut  off  not  far  below  the  surface. 
The  nurseryman,  with  his  large,  fine,  three  and  four-year-old, 
long,  fibrous-rooted  trees,  like  those  now  sold,  had  not  yet 


OLD     PRIMITIVE     ORCHARDS.  71 

appeared  upon  the  stage  to  captivate  those  rustic  growers 
with  visions  of  early  fruit.  And  while  on  its  face  there  may 
seem  to  be  some  show  of  reason  in  this  theory  of  climatic 
change  as  the  cause  for  all  this  acknowledged  inferiority  and 
decay,  yet  when  examined  in  the  cold  light  of  statistical 
climatology  and  actual  experience,  it  crumbles,  a  baseless 
fabric,  to  the  ground.  The  records,  from  the  earliest  times, 
show  no  material  change  in  average  temperature  or  rainfall 
between  then  and  now,  and  we  still  have,  here  and  there,  all 
over  the  country,  strong,  vigorous  and  productive  old  seed- 
ling trees,  like  the  Sudduth  pear  in  Illinois,  and  the  Arkansas 
Mammoth  Black-Twig  apple,  which  show  beyond  all  doubt 
that  in  certain  places,  and  under  certain  conditions,  it  is  still 
possible  to  grow  apple  and  pear  trees  fit  companions  to  those 
of  long  ago,  and  which  tower  among  the  fruit  trees  of  to-day, 
like  Saul  among  his  brethren,  head  and  shoulders  above  them 
all.  These  hale  old  mementos  of  by-gone  days  are  living 
witnesses  against  the  theory  of  climatic  change,  for  C.  M. 
Stark,  of  Missouri,  in  American  Garden  of  January,  says : 
"The  original  Mammoth  Black-Twig  apple  tree  is  still  stand- 
ing near  Rhea's  Mill,  in  Washington  county,  Arkansas,  and 
bearing  fruit,  and  at  the  recent  meeting  of  the  State  Horti- 
cultural Society  of  that  state,  at  Fayettville,  there  was  an  ex- 
hibit of  apples  from  this  tree  labeled,  'M.  B.-Twig,  from  the 
original  tree,  sixty-five  years  old,  two  feet  eight  inches  in 
diameter  2^  feet  above  the  ground."  And  yet,  just  across 
the  state  line  in  Kansas,  the  well-known  king  of  apple  grow- 
ers, Mr.  Frank  Wellhouse,  the  owner  of  1,200  acres  of  trees, 
plants  sixteen  feet  apart  in  the  rows,  because  in  twelve  or 
fifteen  years  he  finds  that  his  long-rooted,  well  sprayed  and 
cultivated  trees,  standing  on  thoroughly  prepared  ground, 
cease  to  pay. 

These  being  some  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  what  is  the  true 
answer  to  the  New  York  Legislature's  call  last  year  for  infor- 
mation as  to  the  acknowledged  decadence  of  modern  orchards, 
especially  the  apple  ?  It  will  not  do  to  talk  apologetically,  in 
explanation  of  repeated  crop  failures,  about  the  great  number 
of  fungous  enemies,  late  frosts,  dry  seasons,  chilling  winds 


72  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

and  cold,  wet  weather  at  blooming  time,  as  if  all  those  con- 
ditions did  not  prevail  in  the  "Auld  Lang  Syne"  as  well  as 
now.  Hear  what  Mr.  S.  F.  Alberger,  in  a  recent  issue  of  the 
Orange  Judd  Farmer,  has  to  say  about  the  conduct  now  of 
some  of  these  old-time  apple  trees  :  ''The  apple  trees  that 
pay  best  now  in  Western  New  York  are  from  sixty  to  one 
hundred  years  old.  I  think  it  is  because  their  branches  sel- 
dom intersect,  and  their  roots  run  deep  into  the  soil,  and  dur- 
ing our  customary  dry  fall  weather,  supply  to  the  fruit  buds 
not  only  moisture,  but  the  kind  and  quality  of  food  neces- 
sary to  give  them  the  vital  power  required  to  perfect  the  fer- 
tilization of  the  flowers  and  the  setting  of  the  fruit  the  next 
spring.  I  think  the  lack  of  vital  force  in  the  buds  is  one 
great  fault  in  our  commercial  orchards  of  to-day.  In  many 
of  these  orchards,  if  the  trees  are  dug  up,  it  will  frequently 
be  found  that  they  have  no  tap-roots  at  all,  but  the  roots 
start  out  at  almost  right  angles,  and  in  some  cases  are 
found,  at  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  from  the  trees,  to  be  only  six 
inches  or  a  foot  below  the  surface.  Some  of  these  trees 
showed  decay  at  the  center  of  the  trunk  ;  in  three  cases, 
where  the  trees  had  been  grafted,  it  could  be  seen  between 
the  layers  of  yearly  growth  from  six  to  twelve  years  after 
planting,  but  the  trunks  of  a  twenty-two-year-old  seedling  and 
several  seventy-five-year-old  seedlings  that  were  limb-grafted 
do  not  indicate  any  decay.  Does  the  insertion  of  the  graft 
or  scion  into  the  crown  cause  this  delay  ?" 

Verily,  Mr.  Alberger  is  hitting  very 'close  to  the  truth,  in 
his  diagnosis  of  the  commercial  orchards  of  the  present  day, 
grown  from  large,  fibrous  and  long-rooted  trees.  But  to  an- 
swer the  interrogatory  of  the  New  York  Legislature  more  fully 
as  to  this  well-known  decadence,  let  us  go  back  to  the  time, 
several  hundred  years  ago,  when  there  were  no  orchards  in 
America.  When  the  Mayflower  glided  alongside  of  Ply- 
mouth Rock,  folded  to  rest  her  white  wings,  that  for  many  a 
long,  weary  day  and  night  had  breasted  the  Atlantic's  gales, 
and  from  her  deck  the  Pilgrims  stepped  in  search  of  new 
homes,  we  know  that  they  brought  seeds,  including  fruits  of 
various  kinds,  and  when  settled,  from  time  to  time  imported 


OLD     PRIMITIVE     ORCHARDS.  73 

more.  But  for  many  years,  in  fact  generations,  compelled, 
as  they  were,  to  battle  with  the  elements  and  Indians,  and 
clear  forests,  little  attention  could  have  been  paid  to  fruit- 
growing, except  in  a  small  way  for  individual  use,  and  every 
one  doubtless  propagated  for  himself,  by  the  old  and  well- 
known  method  of  root-grafting,  or  from  seed,  where  the  trees 
were  to  stand.  It  is  a  fair  presumption,  indeed,  that  anything 
like  a  commercial  nursery  was  then  unknown,  friends  and 
neighbors  performing  such  kindly  offices  as  budding  and  graft- 
ing for  each  other  without  pay.  This  continued,  doubtless, 
for  many  generations.  In  fact,  up  to  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century  there  were  practically  no  nurseries  at  all,  and 
the  institutions  of  this  description  that  are  so  common  now 
all  over  the  country  really  date  back  scarcely  more  than  fifty 
or  seventy-five  years.  But  as  more  and  more  attention  was 
given  to  fruit  culture,  naturally  people  here  and  there  would 
grow  trees  for  sale,  and  many  seasons  would  doubtless  have 
an  over-supply.  Not  wishing  to  lose  them,  these  would  be 
transplanted  once  or  more,  to  check  growth  and  keep  them 
from  getting  too  large,  and  intending  purchasers,  seeing  such 
big,  fine  stock,  in  their  desire  and  haste  for  immediate  bear- 
ing, and  encouraged  by  the  honest  but  mistaken  nurseryman, 
would  naturally  purchase  these  large  trees,  in  preference  to 
the  small  ones ;  and,  indeed,  if  treated  right,  a  two  or  three- 
year-old  tree,  or  even  one  five  or  six  years  old  is  equally  as 
good,  and  will  fruit  sooner  than  a  younger  one.  But  the 
trouble  was,  then  as  now,  that  right  treatment  was  not  under- 
stood, and  in  order  to  preserve  a  large  part  of  the  handsome 
tops,  which  the  customers  of  course  desired,  the  nurseryman 
naturally  advised  retaining  as  much  as  possible  of  the  long 
and  fibrous  roots,  the  result  of  transplanting  once  or  more. 
And  thus  it  gradually  came  about,  that  there  grew  up  an  aris- 
tocracy of  root,  and  when  dug  and  graded  in  the  fall,  the 
value  and  price  of  the  stock  was  largely  determined,  just 
as  it  is  now,  by  the  size  and  quantity  of  the  roots.  I 
doubt,  indeed,  whether  there  is  to-day  (February  8,  1896)  a 
nurseryman  in  the  whole  country  who  has  not  numbers  of 
fine  trees  of  all  varieties  that  by  accident  have  been  dug 


74  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

with  short  roots,  for  which  he  will  cheerfully  take  half  price. 
But  to  return  to  our  immediate  forefathers  and  their  doings 
in  the  fields  of  horticulture.  Naturally,  in  very  dry  seasons 
or  in  case  of  neglected  trees,  set  with  large  tops,  the  tangled 
mass  of  feeble,  fibrous  roots  would  fail  to  take  hold  in  the 
soil,  and,  exhausted  by  evaporation  from  the  tops,  would  die. 
Then  at  once  went  up  the  cry,  "More  root  !"  Why  not? 
Taught  to  believe  that  roots  were  absolutely  necessary,  nat- 
urally the  planter  would  conclude,  the  more  the  better,  just  as 
is  taught  in  all  the  books  to-day  ;  and  indeed,  so  firmly  is  it 
fixed  in  the  minds  of  many  of  our  most  eminent  fruit  grow- 
ers that,  though  earnestly  requested  to  do  so,  they  will  not 
even  plant  a  single  close  root-pruned  tree  as  an  experiment. 
This  has  for  several  years  been  my  general  experience,  in  try- 
ing to  inaugurate  this  all-important  reform.  And  yet  it  is 
absolutely  the  foundation  of  all  permanent  success  in  the 
orchards  of  the  future.  We  have  now  got  to  a  point  where  a 
small  one-year  tree  is  considered  worthless,  and  it  is  well- 
nigh  impossible  to  sell  a  tree  that  has  not  been  transplanted 
once,  and  oftener  twice,  to  give  it  plenty  of  roots,  and  when 
such  trees  are  planted,  with  all  their  matted  fibrous  roots,  the 
doom  of  that  orchard  is  sealed,  whether  it  be  with  blight  and 
scab  in  the  pear  and  apple,  yellows  in  the  peach,  or  black- 
knot  and  root-tumor  in  the  plum  and  peach.  Such  orchards 
are  bound  to  fail  early,  become  diseased,  and  die.  And  so,  in 
tracing  the  probable  course  and  progress  of  horticulture  in 
this  country  from  the  earliest  times  down  until  now,  we  find 
that  of  necessity,  commencing  with  seedlings  and  root-grafts 
(practically  my  method),  its  whole  history  has  been  a  descent 
from  health,  longevity  and  productiveness  in  the  beginning, 
as  history  and  tradition  both  prove,  down  to  disease,  early 
decay  and  unfruitfulness  at  the  present  time,  and  in  an  exact 
and  direct  ratio  to  the  increased  quantity  of  roots  left  on, 
and  age  of  the  trees  when  set.  The  older  the  tree  and  the 
more  root,  the  worse  for  the  tree  ever  afterwards.  Just  how 
I  happened  to  discover  this  important  truth  will  be  told  in 
the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER    III. 

How  I  Discovered  Close  Root -Pruning. 

AS  this  principle  of  horticulture  is  absolutely  the  most 
important,  without  a  single  exception,  in  the  whole 
science,  and  the  foundation  of  all  permanent  success, 
it  is  most  astonishing  that  men  have  stumbled  over  it  almost 
daily  from  the  beginning,  and  never  realized  its  value.  The 
ordinary  root-graft  has  been  the  most  common  form  of  prop- 
agation for  most  fruit  trees  for  time  out  of  mind,  and  every 
nurseryman  knows  what  superior  trees  can  be  thus  grown  in 
a  single  season.  And  yet  it  has  never  occurred  to  any  one  to 
say  :  If  a  small  piece  of  root  will  make  such  a  fine  tree,  why 
will  not  the  same  principle  apply  the  second  or  any  other 
year  afterward  ?  Just  how  the  value  of  this  method  did  first 
present  itself  to  me  is  as  follows  :  Nobody  here  having  any 
faith  in  the  success  of  my  venture  of  pear  planting,  I  found 
it  impossible  at  first  to  sell  but  few  of  the  trees  I  had  grown 
from  cuttings,  but  having  hopes  that  the  astonishing  vigor 
and  thrift  of  my  orchard  would  start  a  demand,  I  dug  the 
young  trees  for  several  years,  and  transplanted  to  keep  them 
from  getting  too  large,  as  they  surely  would,  judging  from  the 
way  the  orchard  was  doing.  So  we  opened  wide  furrows  and, 
spreading  out  the  pear  tree  roots  evenly,  according  to  the 
universal  directions,  covered  them  nicely  and  firmed  the 
ground  well.  Being  an  old  market-gardener,  though  a  new 
nurseryman,  and  a  believer  in  manure,  as  already  shown,  I 
gave  the  rows  of  young  trees  a  good  dressing  of  cotton-seed 
meal,  and  with  fair  cultivation,  at  the  end  of  the  year  I  had 
no  cause  for  complaint,  as  they  all  did  well.  But  even  that 
early  I  had  caught  on  to  the  fact  that,  for  some  unexplained 
reason,  the  cuttings  planted  at  the  same  time  as  the  rooted 
trees  always  averaged  much  better.  Moreover,  another  great 
point  in  their  favor  was,  that  when  we  came  to  pack  the  few 

(75) 


76  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

trees  1  did  sell,  being  green  at  the  business  I  found  a  world  of 
trouble  to  make  the  clumsy,  flat-rooted  ones  from  the  young 
trees  agree  with  one  another  and  lie  comfortably  in  the  same 
bundle.  Having  been  planted  with  quite  long  ones,  they  were 
entirely  lateral-rooted  when  dug.  But  the  trees  grown  from 
cuttings,  while  they  gave  us  a  world  of  trouble  to  get  out 
with  the  regulation  amount  and  length  of  root,  when  we 
came  to  pack,  were  regular  daisies — roots  all  long,  deep  and 
straight,  and  as  easy  to  pack  as  sardines  in  a  box.  The 
third  year  I  had  extraordinary  luck,  and  grew  about  seven 
thousand  trees  from  cuttings.  Having  again  sold  only  about 
two  thousand,  I  found  quite  a  job  on  my  hands  late  in  spring, 
as  we  had  waited,  hoping  some  purchaser  would  come  along. 
But  he  did  not,  so  we  had  to  tackle  the  transplanting  job 
again,  and  at  the  same  time  look  forward  to  next  year's  pack- 
ing of  those  roots,  if  sales  turned  out  good.  I  remember  well 
standing  before  the  row  where  the  trees  were  all  nicely  heeled 
in,  with  the  buds  ready  to  leaf  out,  and  my  only  help,  Frank, 
a  colored  boy,  at  my  side,  who  had  just  as  little  fancy  as  I  for 
the  job.  After  holding  a  council  of  war  for  awhile  as  to  the 
best  and  easiest  way  to  get  all  those  roots  under  ground,  and 
Frank  had  actually  gone  down  once  with  the  plow  and  was 
coming  back  on  the  furrow,  throwing  the  dirt  out,  the  idea 
occurred  all  at  once  in  the  form  of  a  self  question.  Some- 
thing seemed  to  say  :  "  If  those  trees  grew  so  well  with  no 
root  at  all,  what's  the  matter  with  cutting  them  all  off,  and 
letting  them  try  it  over  again  ?  "  No  sooner  thought  than 
settled.  Frank  was  within  fifty  feet  of  me  coming  back,  and 
when  he  got  there  I  astonished  him  by  saying:  "Now  go 
back  and  throw  the  furrow  together  again,"  and  told  him  of 
my  idea.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation  that  colored  boy, 
Frank  Bell,  caught  on  to  the  whole  thing,  saying,  "Good," 
and  started  back  on  the  row.  And  yet  I  have  been  writing 
and  urging  fruit-growers  for  the  last  eight  years  just  to 
try  the  method,  even  on  a  single  tree;  but  so  thoroughly 
had  the  long-root  idea  incorporated  itself  into  the  mental 
machinery  of  most  of  them,  that  until  the  last  year  or  two  it 
has  been  in  vain.  I  laid  the  whole  subject  in  a  most  exhaust- 


HOW     I     DISCOVERED     CLOSE     ROOT-PRUNING. 


77 


ive  article  before  the  American  Pomological  Society  five  years 
ago,  at  Washington,  which,  if  it  was  ever  read,  certainly  pro- 
duced no  other  result  except  perhaps  to  stamp  me  as  a  wild 
and  woolly  Texas  crank! 

But  to  return  to  my  story.     We  pitched  in,  and  in  short 
order  had  the  whole  __  ______ 

five  thousand  trees 
reduced  back  to  cut- 
tings again,  at  least 
in  appearance,  for 
we  did  not  stop  at 
any  half-way  close- 
pruning,  like  thou- 
sands will  who  try  it 
with  fear  and  doubt. 
We  both  agreed  that 
it  was  a  plain  case 
of  no  need  for  root 
at  all,  and  off  they 
came,  as  close  to  the 
ends  as  we  could  cut 
them,  for  our  inten- 
Ation  was  simply  to 
stick  them  back  in 
the  rows  as  cuttings, 
after  reducing  the 
tops  to  one  foot. 
And  we  treated  the 
whole  five  thousand 
just  that  way.  If 
a  single  tree  died,  I 
never  saw  it,  and  by 
fall  those  rows  pre- 
sented a  picture  of 

vigorous     and     even 

growth,   many   trees 

being  eight  to  ten  feet  high,  like  the  tree  1  hold  in  my  hand  in 

the  illustration,  though  the  root-pruned  tree  in  the  other  hand 


TREE  IN  RI^HT  HAND  GROWN  IN  ONE  YEAR  FROM 

ONE  LIKE  THAT   IN  LEFT  HAND. 


78  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

has  twice  as  much  root  as  those  had.  But  what  shall  I  say 
of  the  great,  deep,  penetrating  roots  they  had  struck  !  The 
tree  I  hold  shows  exactly  the  character  of  their  root  system, 
though  it  has  several  large  roots  broken  off  in  digging  from 
the  hard-pan  pipe-clay  subsoil,  and  the  photograph  by  no 
means  does  justice  to  the  size  of  the  ends  of  the  roots  next 
to  the  floor,  which  were  from  the  size  of  a  knitting  needle  to 
a  wheat-straw,  showing  plainly  they  had  gone  far  deeper.  In 
fact,  I  am  confident  that  could  all  of  that  tree's  roots  have 
been  taken  up,  the  extreme  length  would  have  been  as  great 
as  the  top,  which  had  to  be  bent  and  broken  down  for  photo- 
graphing, and  measured  eleven  feet.  I  wish  particularly  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  this  tree  was  grown  on  stiff,  black, 
waxy  soil,  broken  about  four  inches  deep,  having  a  hard-pan 
yellow  pipe-clay  subsoil,  that  positively  defies  a  spade.  And 
yet  we  find  pages  in  the  books  about  the  absolute  necessity 
for  a  deeply  plowed  and  subsoiled  bed  for  trees,  to  enable 
their  roots  to  take  hold,  forgetting  that  hard  and  soft  are 
relative  terms,  and  ground  as  hard  as  a  rock  to  us  is  as  soft 
as  butter  to  a  close  root-pruned  tree. 

But  a  little  more  about  that  lot  of  trees.  By  this  time 
people  began  to  talk  and  investigate,  and  wild  rumors  of  fab- 
ulous Le  Conte  pear  crops  and  profits  over  in  Georgia  found 
their  way  over  here.  That  fall  I  sold  nearly  every  tree  I 
had,  and,  having  found  out  this  easy  method  of  planting,  I 
hastened  to  spread  the  glad  tidings,  as  well  as  to  ''butcher" 
the  tree  roots  in  digging.  Frank  had  a  weather  eye  for  an 
easy  job,  and  when  I  said,  "Dig  with  short  roots,"  he  was 
quick  to  obey,  and  we  hustled  them  out  in  a  hurry.  But 
when  I  came  to  deliver,  I  found  that  I  had  made  a  big  mis- 
take, for  talk  as  eloquently  as  I  would  about  the  virtue  of 
short  roots,  and  with  the  trees  in  my  hands  to  demonstrate 
its  truth,  I  actually  had  several  parties  refuse  to  buy,  and  had 
to  guarantee  nearly  all  I  did  sell  to  grow.  This  wound  up 
my  efforts  as  a  close  root-pruned  tree  propagandist  for  some 
time,  and  while  knowing  they  were  worse  than  useless,  to  my 
great  disgust,  I  was  compelled  to  dig  with  all  the  roots  pos- 
sible. In  fact,  so  disheartening  were  my  efforts  for  a  number 


HOW    I    DISCOVERED    CLOSE    ROOT-PRUNING.  79 

of  years  that  if  Prof.  T.  L.  Brunk,  then  of  our  Texas  A.  and 
M.  College,  had  not,  on  a  visit  of  several  days  to  my  home, 
urged  me  so  earnestly  once  more  to  bring  the  subject  before 
the  public  in  the  Southern  Horticultural  Journal,  of  which  he 
was  the  editor,  and  also  in  Farm  and  Ranch,  it  might  have 
rested  until  now.  He  saw  the  philosophy  of  the  whole  thing 
at  a  glance  when  I  pointed  it  out,  and  showed  him  the  trees, 
and  afterwards,  when  connected  with  the  Experiment  Station 
at  Washington,  he  made  the  very  exhaustive  experiments,  an 
account  of  which  is  elsewhere  in  this  volume.  Had  not  per- 
sonal and  political  motives  succeeded  in  ousting  him  from 
Washington  shortly  afterwards,  this  most  enthusiastic  and 
progressive  master  of  horticulture  would,  I  feel  sure,  long 
ago  have  succeeded  in  demonstrating,  in  the  public  position 
he  held  near  the  capitol,  the  utility  and  vast  superiority  of 
the  close  root-pruning  over  the  long-rooted  method. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Close  Root -Pruning. 

WITH  all  our  knowledge  and  progress  in  the  other  arts 
and  sciences,  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  prove  that 
in  the  science  and  practice  of  horticulture  we  have 
retrograded  so  far  that  only  last  year  the  legislature  of  New 
York  passed  a  bill  appropriating  funds  and  authorizing  the 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture  to  investigate  and  determine,  if 
possible,  the  causes  for  the  widespread  decadence  of  the 
orchards  in  western  New  York,  both  in  the  matter  of  the  de- 
creasing health  and  shortened  life  of  the  trees,  as  well  as  the 
inferior  quality  and  diminished  yield  of  fruit.  This  investi- 
gation is  now  in  progress,  and  is  awakening  great  interest  in 
the  east.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  all  over  the  country  the 
same  conditions  exist  that  are  complained  of  in  New  York. 
While  last  year  gave  a  phenomenal  yield  of  fruit  every- 
where, it  is  the  first  for  several  years,  and  not  likely  to  occur 
soon  again,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  sturdy  fruit  trees  which 
delighted  the  eye  with  their  grand  proportions,  and  tickled 
the  palates  of  our  forefathers  with  their  regular  and  abundant 
crops  of  fine  fruit,  are  a  thing  of  the  past.  Something  cer- 
tainly is  wrong  when  apple  trees  cease  to  be  profitable  at  fif- 
teen years  of  age,  and  peach  trees  reach  their  prime  in  five  and 
die  in  ten  or  less,  as  they  do  nearly  everywhere  in  our  culti- 
vated orchards,  and  yet  old  seedlings  in  fence  corners,  chicken 
yards,  old  fields  and  around  the  back  doors  are  standing  up 
cheerily  under  the  weight  of  twenty  or  thirty  years  ;  and  Mr. 
Hale  himself  drew  his  inspiration,  when  he  embarked  in  his 
successful  career  of  peach  growing,  from  a  sixty-year  tree 
that  stood  in  a  neglected  but  friendly  fence-row  on  his  ances- 
tral farm.  That  there  are  causes  for  all  this,  outside  of 
diminished  fertility,  want  of  care  or  fancied  qhange  of  climate, 
is  certain. 

(80) 


CLOSE     ROOT-PRUNING.  8 1 

I  will  now  enumerate  the  four  probable  causes  which,  from 
a  series  of  observations  and  experiments  for  many  years,  I  am 
sure  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  trouble,  and  in  so  doing,  will 
confine  myself  strictly  to  facts,  which  anyone  can  verify  for 
himself. 

1.  I   claim  that  the  best  form    of    tree   for    planting    is 
exactly  the  opposite  of   that  recommended  by  all  authorities 
from  time  immemorial,   inasmuch  as  the  latter  departs  far- 
thest from  nature's  method  of  seed,  which  experience  of  the 
past  proves  to  be  the  best,  and  to  which  I  claim  my  method 
is   superior.      The  close   root-pruned   tree,    as  shown   in  the 
accompanying  cut  (page  87),  struck  several  strong  penetra- 
ting tap-roots,  instead  of  one,  like  a  seedling,  and  sent  them 
much  deeper,  fully  ten  feet  in  a  single  season. 

2.  I  claim  that  deep  preparation  of  the  ground,  as  now 
recommended,    is    equally  far    from    the    truth    and  nature's 
method   of  a  firm,  unbroken  soil,  inasmuch    as  such    deeply 
pulverized   ground,  after  excessive    rains,   even  though  well 
drained,  will  for  several  days  become  a  bog,  to  drown  and 
scald  the  young  rootlets  in  summer  and  freeze  them  to  death 
in  winter  at  the  North. 

3.  That    all    cultivation    of    trees    after    several    years, 
when  the  feeding  roots  hunt  the  surface,  is  wrong  per  se,  inas- 
much as  all  trees  depend  upon  these  surface  roots  for  the 
proper  development  of  the  fruit,  both  as  to  size  and  quality, 
and  any  cultivation  must  necessarily  be  destructive  to  them. 
Of  course,  when  first  planted,  the  middles  can  be  utilized  for 
several  years  without   serious   injury,  for  growing  crops  be- 
tween if  desired  ;    but  from   the   very   start,  except   a    space 
around  each  tree  large  enough  to  prevent  damage  from  the 
mowing  blade,  frequent  and  close  mowing  through  the  grow- 
ing season,  leaving  the  clippings  on  the  ground,  is  the  best 
plan  for  all  close  root-pruned  trees,  with  annual  fertilizing  to 
perfect  the  crop.      But  please  take  notice  that  I  do  not  rec- 
ommend  this   treatment   for    poor,    handicapped,    three    and 
four-year-old,   long,   fibrous-rooted   trees,   if  planted  as  they 
come  from  the  nursery. 

4.  That  all  fall,  winter  and   spring  pruning,    until  after 
6 — HORT. 


82  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

the  trees  are  in  full  growth,  is  contrary  to  nature  and  common 
sense,  in  that  it,  as  well  as  fall,  winter  and  early  spring 
stirring  of  the  ground  tends  to  break  our  trees'  rest  and 
start  a  premature  motion  of  the  sap. 

These  four  fundamental  principles  of  successful  horticul- 
ture are  in  perfect  accordance  with  nature  and  experience,  as 
demonstrated  by  all  forest  trees,  as  well  as  old  chance  seed- 
lings of  all  fruits  everywhere,  and  constitute  the  "New  Hor- 
ticulture" I  now  advocate.  To  these  four  points,  and  my 
internal  theory  of  all  species  of  tree  bacteria,  and  the  causes 
of  their  development  in  the  forms  of  yellows,  blight,  root- 
tumor,  scab,  black-knot,  etc.,  I  invite  the  earnest  attention  of 
fruit-growers  everywhere,  and  a  full,  exhaustive,  friendly  crit- 
icism. I  am  wedded  to  no  theory,  or  bound  by  no  prejudice, 
but  simply  follow  where  I  think  truth  points  her  finger. 

As  to  my  theory  of  inherent  bacteria,  whether  it  be  right 
or  wrong,  it  is  a  matter  of  small  moment,  provided  I  have 
shown  that  a  close  root-pruned  tree,  if  treated  rationally,  will 
never  afford  the  conditions  for  the  development  of  any  of 
those  bacterial  diseases,  and  in  this  I  think  I  have  succeeded. 
And  now  to  the  first  cause,  which  I  claim  to  be  a  radically 
wrong  form  of  tree  when  set. 

THE  REVOLUTION  IN  TREE  PLANTING. — It  is  about  eight 
years  since  I  first  announced  in  Farm  and  Ranch  that  the 
theory  and  practice  of  tree  planting,  as  handed  down  from 
time  immemorial,  was  wrong,  and  that,  instead  of  the  more 
roots  a  tree  has  when  reset  the  better,  the  very  opposite  was 
true.  I  then  gave  a  full  history  of  how  I  happened  to  hit 
upon  this  truth,  as  well  as  a  detailed  account  of  various  ex- 
periments upon  a  great  many  kinds  of  fruit  and  shade  trees, 
that  demonstrated  beyond  all  doubt  the  truth  of  my  state- 
ment. I  also  adduced  many  isolated  facts  from  the  experi- 
ence of  others  going  to  corroborate  my  own. 

So  absurd  did  the  idea  of  cutting  off  all  the  roots  of  a 
tree  seem  even  to  very  many  prominent  horticulturists,  that 
though  I  then  wrote  to  quite  a  number  all  over  the  country, 
the  invariable  answer  was  :  "  While  such  treatment  may  suc- 
ceed with  you,  it  would  be  out  of  the  question  here."  The 


CLOSE     ROOT-PRUNING.  83 

fact  is,  we  inherit  our  opinions  and  ideas  just  as  well  as  the 
peculiarities  of  our  bodies,  and  so  true  is  this  that  the  con- 
trary of  their  beliefs  is  positively  unthinkable  to  many  men. 
An  instance  of  this  came  to  me  in  a  letter  from  one  of  our 
most  progressive  Texas  nurserymen.  He  wrote:  "I  have 
been  practicing  close  root-pruning  with  perfect  success  for 
some  years,  and  yet  my  father,  who  is  seventy  years  old,  and 
sees  the  good  results  every  year,  won' t  admit  them,  but  persists 
in  saying  that  '  if  the  roots  were  not  necessary  they  wouldn't 
be  put  there.'  "  So  firmly,  indeed,  has  this  long-root  fallacy 
become  imbedded  in  the  human  mind  by  ages  of  practice, 
that  even  a  man  of  Chas.  Downing's  eminence  in  horticulture 
declares  in  his  great  work  that  the  " ideal  transplanting" 
would  be  to  take  up  a  tree  with  its  roots  entire.  That  this 
would  be  absolutely  the  very  worst  form,  anyone  can  easily 
demonstrate  for  himself.  Let  him  take,  for  instance,  two 
peach  or  other  tree  seeds,  and  plant  a  few  inches  apart  in, 
say  a  ten-inch  pot  of  good,  rich  soil.  At  the  end  of  next 
year,  let  him  take  them  out  and  carefully  shake  off  all  the  soil 
from  the  roots,  and  plant  side  by  side  in  the  open  ground. 
Let  him  spread  out  in  a  large  hole  all  the  roots  of  one  tree, 
according  to  the  inherited  regulation  method,  and  cut  back 
all  on  the  other  to  about  one  inch,  and  the  top  to  one  foot, 
just  enough  to  allow  of  its  being  stuck  down  about  six  inches, 
like  a  cutting.  Treat  alike,  and  in  two  years  the  root-pruned 
tree  will  be  many  times  larger  than  the  other.  And  right 
here  I  wish  to  say,  very  particularly,  that  the  great  superior- 
ity of  close  root-pruning  is  not  always  so  apparent  the  first 
year,  the  tree  giving  more  attention  to  striking  deep  roots 
than  making  top.  Even  for  several  years,  we  all  know  that 
trees  as  ordinarily  set  do  well,  but  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
a  large  amount  of  root  is  removed  even  then.  But  a  com- 
parison with  these  will  prove  that  when  the  strain  of  fruit- 
bearing  comes,  the  close-pruned  tree,  with  its  roots  deep  and 
strong,  out  of  reach  of  the  plow,  winter's  cold  and  summer's 
heat  and  drouth,  will  stand  up  for  many  years,  giving  good 
crops,  long  after  the  other,  with  its  lateral  and  surface  sys- 
tem, has  broken  down  and  died.  How  else  are  we  to 


84  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

account  for  the  early  decadence  of  our  latter-day  orchards  ? 
The  planter,  in  his  haste  for  fruit,  demands  big  trees,  with 
plenty  of  roots  and  top,  to  support  which,  and  to  make  them 
live,  the  nurseryman  often  transplants  several  times.  This 
gives  a  mass  of  fibrous  roots,  which  will  undoubtedly,  if  the 
season  is  good,  make  the  trees  live,  but  practically  dwarfs 
them  and  destroys  their  future  usefulness.  While  Samson 
lost  his  strength  by  cutting  off  his  hair,  a  tree  is  forever 
weakened  by  leaving  its  "hair"  roots  on  when  set,  for  it 
seems  then  compelled  to  re-establish  itself  by  emitting  new 
fibrous  roots  entirely  from  these.  This  results  in  a  perma- 
nently lateral  and  surface  system.  Sink  a  spade  around  such 
a  tree  a  year,  or  even  two,  after  planting,  and  a  slight  pull 
will  lift  it  from  the  ground,  but  a  short  root-pruned  tree  will 
resist  any  effort.  The  whole  theory  of  the  latter  method  is 
simply  copying  nature.  She  starts  her  trees  from  seed  with 
neither  tops  or  roots,  and  universal  experience  has  shown 
that  these,  and  trees  grown  from  cuttings  (which  are  prac- 
tically seed),  if  never  moved,  are  the  strongest,  healthiest, 
longest-lived  and  most  productive.  The  advantages  I  claim 
for  this  method  over  the  all-important  one  of  giving  far 
better  trees  are  : 

1.  An  enormous   saving    to    the   nurseryman   in   digging 
his  stock,  which  now  must  be  taken  up  with  roots  a  foot  or 
more  long. 

2.  An    equally    great    saving    in    packing.      Instead     of 
great  bales  of  tops,  roots,  moss,  bagging  and  rope,  and  the 
labor  of  putting  up  the  same,  or  large  boxes  containing  thou- 
sands of  pounds  of  the  same  useless  dead  weight,  a  thousand 
root-  and  top-pruned  trees  could  be  packed  in  a  medium-sized 
tight  box,  with  a  layer  of  wet  moss  in  the  bottom  to  main- 
tain  a   moist   atmosphere,   and   shipped  with   perfect   safety 
around  the  world. 

3.  The   saving    to   the   buyer  will   be  even  greater.      As 
an  instance,  several  years  ago  I  ordered  five  thousand  grape 
vines  from  California,  and  wrote  specific  directions  for  root 
and  top-pruning,  as  well  as  packing,  and  offered  to  pay  for 
the  extra  pruning,  the  box  to  be  sent  by  express.      The  nur- 


CLOSE      ROOT-PRUNING.  85 

seryman,  setting  me  down  for  a  crank  or  fool,  packed  the 
vines,  top,  roots  and  all,  in  three  immense  bales,  weighing 
1,300  pounds,  for  which  he  got  a  special  rate,  and  yet  they 
cost  me  sixty-seven  dollars  charges.  I  pruned  and  packed 
them  in  a  single  bale  weighing  227  pounds,  shipping  them 
250  miles,  after  which  they  were  set  by  being  simply  stuck 
down  into  shallow,  pulverized  ground  and  tramped,  the  whole 
operation  taking  but  two  days.  Every  vine  grew,  and  the 
next  summer,  the  third  year,  I  expect  to  ship  grapes  by  the 
car  load.  It  would  be  hard  to  estimate  how  many  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  are  annually  paid  by  planters  to  rail- 
roads, in  charges  on  worse  than  useless  tops,  roots  and 
packing. 

4.  Thousands    of    dollars    will    be    saved    in    the    plant- 
ing.     Instead   of    large   holes,    and   spreading   out   of    roots, 
working    in    the    soil    by  hand,    etc.,   as   now  practiced,   the 
planter  will  prepare  his  ground,  stretch   a   strong   line,  with 
tags   tied   at   the  right   intervals,  make  a  small   hole  with  a 
dibble  a  couple  of  inches  in  diameter,  stick  the  trees  down 
the  proper  distance,  and  when  a  row  is  done  turn  back  and 
tramp  thoroughly.      This  is  very  important. 

5.  Another   most   important  advantage   is,   that   by  this 
method  we  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  danger  of  spreading  all 
kinds   of  diseases   and  insect  pests,   such  as  eel-worm,   root 
tumor,    scales,   root-lice,    etc.       These  are   mostly  found    on 
the  tops  or  long  roots. 

6.  It  enables  the  planter  to  set  extra-large  trees,  which 
the   nurseryman   now  has   to   throw  away,    and    thus    obtain 
fruit  much  sooner. 

I  will  now  repeat  directions  for  root-pruning.  Hold  the 
tree  top  down,  and  cut  all  roots  back  to  about  an  inch,  slop- 
ing the  cuts  so  that  when  the  tree  is  set  the  cut  surface  is 
downwards.  Experience  has  shown  that  the  roots  are  gene- 
rally emitted  perpendicularly  to  the  plane,  or  surface  of  the 
cut.  This  final  pruning  should  be  done  shortly  before  plant- 
ing, so  as  to  present  a  fresh  surface  for  the  callus  to  form  on. 
If  trees  are  to  be  kept  some  time,  or  shipped  by  a  nursery- 
man, about  two  inches  of  root  should  be  left,  the  planter  to 


86  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

cut  back  as  directed  when  the  tree  is  set.  About  a  foot  of 
top  should  be  left.  More  or  less  makes  no  difference.  If  the 
tree  is  well  staked,  three  feet  may  be  left  without  diminishing 
the  growth  much.  I  have  had  six-foot  trees,  well  staked,  to 
grow  finely,  but  to  avoid  staking  and  to  secure  a  new, 
straight  body,  it  is  best  to  cut  back  short.  Let  all  shoots 
grow  until  a  foot  or  so  long,  when  the  straightest  and  best 
one  should  be  left  and  all  others  rubbed  off.  I  could  give 
the  experience  and  endorsement  of  quite  a  number  of  orchard- 
ists  who  have  practiced  this  method  with  uniform  success, 
but  it  is  necessary  to  mention  only  one.  Without  waiting 
for  the  slow  demonstration  of  experience,  he  at  once  put  it  in 
practice  on  his  great  nine  hundred-acre  peach  orchard  of  one 
hundred  thousand  trees,  which  he  was  about  to  plant  in 
Georgia.  I  wrote  him  recently  as  to  how  it  turned  out. 
Here  is  the  reply  : 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  glad  to  state  that  the  close  root-pruning,  which 
was  practiced  when  planting  our  entire  orchard  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand trees  at  Fort  Valley,  Georgia,  proved  to  be  the  most  successful 
operation  we  ever  practiced,  less  than  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of 
the  trees  failing  to  grow,  and  all  making  the  most  vigorous  and  even 
growth  I  have  ever  seen  in  any  orchard  in  America.  The  orchard  is 
now  three  years  old,  and  gave  us  an  enormous  crop  of  fruit  this  past 
season.  I  am  thoroughly  in  favor  of  this  system  of  root-pruning. 
Yours  very  truly,  J.  H.  HALE. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  my  indi- 
vidual efforts  for  eight  years  have  amounted  to  practically 
nothing,  the  question  is,  how  to  bring  about,  in  the  general 
handling  of  trees,  this  radical  but  needed  reform.  I  see  but 
two  ways.  The  first  through  the  medium  of  the  nurseryman 
and  his  catalogue,  and  the  second  through  the  bulletins  of 
the  experiment  stations. 

Quite  a  number  of  nurserymen,  some  of  them  the  most 
extensive  in  the  Union,  have  written  me  that  they  are  now 
practicing  this  method  exclusively,  and  with  perfect  success, 
in  all  their  nursery  transplanting  operations,  but  they  dare 
not  advise  the  people  to  adopt  it,  for  fear  of  being  accused  of 
trying  to  induce  them  to  kill  their  trees,  so  as  to  sell  them 
more  next  season.  Now,  let  all  of  them  make  mention  of  the 
subject  in  their  future  catalogues.  Next,  let  the  state  experi- 


CLOSE     ROOT-PRUNING. 


TREE  GROWN   FROM    A    ROOT-PRUNED 
ONE,  AT  END  OF  FIRST  YEAR. 


TREE   GROWN   FROM   A   LONG-ROOTED 
ONE,  AT   END  OF  FIRST  YEAR. 


88  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

merit  stations  make  exhaustive  trials  on  all  kinds  of  trees, 
vines  and  small  fruits,  planting  some  with  mere  stubs  of  roots, 
half  an  inch,  and  others  with  five,  ten,  fifteen  and  twenty-inch 
length,  setting  enough  of  each  to  allow  of  taking  up  some 
every  year  to  demonstrate  at  once  that  beyond  a  length  of  one 
inch,  the  quantity  and  size  of  the  new  roots  is  invariably  in 
an  inverse  ratio  to  the  amount  of  old  roots  left  on.  The 
more  and  longer  the  old,  the  more  lateral  and  weaker  the  new 
ones.  Let  them  subject  trees  of  different  ages  and  lengths  of 
tops,  up  to  four  or  five  years  or  more,  to  the  same  treatment, 
and  the  result  will  be  the  same.  The  older  close  root-pruned, 
even  with  four-foot  tops,  will,  if  staked,  quickly  re-establish 
themselves  on  strong,  deep,  new  roots  and  make  fine  trees, 
while  the  same  age  long-rooted  ones  will  become  permanently 
surface-rooted  and  dwarfed  forever.  But  it  is  much  better  to 
cut  back  the  tops  to  one  foot,  and  form  an  entirely  new  head, 
as  from  a  seed. 

In  planting  an  orchard  of  any  fruit  after  this  method,  I 
would  most  earnestly  advise,  even  on  ground  thought  to  be 
rich,  that  each  tree  be  well  top-dressed,  AFTER  BEING  SET,  with 
cotton-seed  meal,  well  rotted  barnyard  manure,  or  other  fer- 
tilizer, except  fresh  stable  manure.  But  neve r  put  manure  of 
any  kind,  except  plain  bone  meal,  in  the  hole  or  around  the  base  of 
a  close  root-pruned  tree,  and  see  then  that  it  is  well  mixed  with 
the  soil.  This  fertilizing  will  force  a  strong  initial  growth, 
and  thus  induce  the  trees  to  strike  many  and  deep,  perpen- 
dicular roots,  and  if  correctly  root-pruned,  as  shown  by  the 
tree  I  hold  in  my  left  hand  in  the  cut,  few  or  no  lateral  roots 
will  be  emitted  for  several  years,  the  trees  confining  their  at- 
tention entirely,  by  instinct,  to  anchoring  themselves  deep  in 
the  moist  earth,  thus  enabling  them  to  resist  any  drouth,  and 
face  unmoved  the  fiercest  storms.  No  wind  can  shake  or 
loosen  the  hold  of  a  close  root-pruned  tree,  no  matter  how 
high  the  future  head,  or  long  the  trunk.  Such  trees  will  make, 
as  they  did  for  Mr.  Hale,  a  perfectly  uniform  growth,  and  if 
propagated  from  bearing  trees,  as  all  should  be,  will  all  come 
into  beari-ng  at  the  same  time,  and  mature  to  full  size,  with- 
out thinning,  crops  that  would  paralyze  trees  planted  with 


CLOSE     ROOT-PRUNING.  89 

long  roots.  Of  course,  removing  some  of  the  smaller  fruit 
would  somewhat  increase  the  size  of  the  balance,  but  all  will 
be  large,  and  thinning  might  be  necessary  only  to  keep  the 
limbs  from  breaking.  Give  full  distance  between  the  rows  of 
all  close  root-pruned  fruit  trees,  and  run  them  north  and 
south,  if  practicable.  Trees  propagated  from  settled  bearing 
ones  will  fruit  full  the  third  year  for  peaches,  apricots  and 
plums,  and  the  fourth  or  fifth  year  for  pears  and  apples,  and 
it  will  be' economy  to  plant  in  the  rows  of  the  latter  fruits  an 
extra  tree  between,  to  fruit  for  five  or  ten  years,  until  those 
intended  to  make  the  permanent  orchard  require  the  space. 
Air  and  sunshine  are  necessities  for  bright,  clean,  high-col- 
ored fruit,  and  shade  breeds  fungi,  except  on  grapes,  which 
often  thrive  in  it. 

I  append  the  following  note  of  comment  on  the  above 
article  by  that  prince  of  careful,  painstaking  originators, 
whose  name  is  known  and  honored  wherever  fruit  is  grown, 
Mr.  Luther  Burbank,  to  whom  I  sent  a  copy  last  winter : 

SANTA  ROSA,  January  S,  1896. 
H.  M.  STRINGFELLOW. 

Dear  Sir — Thanks  for  your  courtesy  in  sending  me  your  very  val- 
uable and  thought-suggesting  essay.  From  my  own  past  experience, 
I  believe  you  are  right.  I  have  used  for  years  a  one-inch  root  and 
five-inch  scion  for  root-grafting,  and,  strange  to  say,  in  an  experi- 
ment ten  years  ago  to  test  the  matter,  I  used  one- inch  roots  with 
five-inch  scions,  and  from  the  same  lot  of  roots  and  scions  some 
three-inch  roots  and  three-inch  scions.  In  the  long  rows  thus  under 
test,  I  could  see  no  difference  (apple  and  pear)  in  the  stand,  but  in 
the  case  of  the  pears,  the  shorter  roots  produced  the  largest  and  best 
trees.  Apples  were  nearly  alike.  I  usually  cut  back  very  heavily, 
but  so  far  have  not  practiced  such  heroic  treatment  as  you  suggest. 
But  as  I  said  before,  think  you  are  right,  and  shall  test  it  here.  If 
it  be  true,  what  a  grand  result  your  studies  have  led  up  to,  and  in 
any  case  can  result  only  in  good  ! 

Sincerely  yours, 

LUTHER  BURBANK. 

As  corroborative  of  the  great  fundamental  truth  of  close 
root-pruning,  thus  imitating  nature's  method  of  seed,  I  will 
next  introduce  the  exhaustive  experiments  made  and  pub- 
lished some  years  ago  by  Prof.  T.  L.  Brunk. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Root  Pruning — How  Demonstrated  at  Washington. 


A      SYSTEM      .OF      TREATMENT      AT      TRANSPLANTING      WHICH 
DISPROVES     OLD     THEORIES. 


BY  THOS.  L.  BRUNK, 

Former  Professor  of  Botany  and  Horticulture,  Maryland  Agricultural  College 
and  Experiment  Station,  Mayfair,  Cook  County,  111. 

IT  has  long  been  the  belief  that  in  removing  a  tree  from 
the  nursery,  the  ideal  operation  would  be  to  save  every 
root  and  rootlet  intact,  that  the  shock  of  transplanting 
may  be  reduced  to  the  minimum.  Downing  states:  "A 
transplanter  should  never  forget  that  it  is  by  the  delicate  and 
tender  points  or  extremities  of  the  root  that  trees  take  up 
their  food,  and  that  the  chance  of  complete  success  is  les- 
sened by  every  one  of  these  points  that  is  bruised  and  de- 
stroyed. If  we  could  remove  trees  with  every  fiber  entire,  as 
we  do  a  plant  in  a  pot,  they  would  scarcely  show  any  sign  of 
their  change  of  position.  In  most  cases,  especially  in  that 
of  trees  taken  from  nurseries,  this  is,  by  the  operation  of 
removal,  nearly  impossible.  But,  although  we  may  not 
hope  to  get  every  root  entire,  we  may,  with  proper  care,  pre- 
serve by  far  the  larger  portion  of  them,  and  more  particu- 
larly the  small  and  delicate  fibers." 

Thomas  says  :  "If  a  tree  could  be  removed  with  all  its 
roots,  including  the  numerous  thread-like  radicals  and  all  the 
spongelets,  and  placed  compactly  in  the  soil,  precisely  as  it 
stood  before,  it  would  surfer  no  check  in  growth.  The  nearer 
we  can  approach  this  condition,  therefore,  the  greater  will  be 
our  success." — American  Fruit  Culturist,  p.  59. 

Numerous  citations  could  be  made  similar  to  the  above  ; 
in  fact,  I  do  not  find  that  any  of  our  highest  authorities  vary 
from  the  ideas  expressed  in  them.  They  all  advocate  trans- 

(90) 


ROOT-PRUNING — HOW    DEMONSTRATED.  QI 

planting  a  tree  with  as  many  roots  attached  as  it  is  practica- 
ble to  remove  with  it.  It  would  seem  at  first  that  there  is 
overwhelming  evidence  against  any  other  course  of  reasoning 
that  may  be  applied  to  this  subject.  The  roots  are  the 
absorbing  organs,  which  take  up  from  the  food-stored  soil  all 
the  water  and  the  larger  part  of  the  mineral  and  solid  foods 
which  enter  into  the  composition  of  a  tree.  It  seems  irre- 
futable that  if  any  of  the  absorbing  area  is  removed,  the  tree 
is  thereb)7  shortened  in  its  food  supply  in  the  same  direct  pro- 
portion. It  must  be  admitted  that  this  is  true  if  done  during 
the  growing  season,  when  the  "sap  "  (protoplasm}  of  a  tree  is 
in  a  state  of  activity ;  but  is  it  the  case  during  the  period  of 
rest,  when  the  "sap"  is  in  a  thickened,  inactive,  non-trans- 
ferable condition  ?  It  is  the  conditions  a  plant  takes  on  dur- 
ing its  inactive  stage  that  do  not  seem  to  have  been  consid- 
ered by  our  older  writers  on  practical  horticulture.  Plant 
physiologists  have  understood  these  conditions  well,  and 
have  shown  that  "sap"  does  not  "go  down  to  the  roots"  in 
fall  and  return  to  the  parts  above  ground  in  spring,  as  is  so 
commonly  believed.  They  tell  us  (and  common  observation 
proves  it)  that  the  "sap"  toward  fall  gradually  thickens  and 
ripens  as  growth  above  lessens,  till  finally  it  becomes  com- 
pletely immobile ;  but  during  this  inactive  stage  it  does  not 
lose  its  power  to  return  to  active  life  when  the  warmth  of 
spring  returns. 

In  this  stage  of  a  woody  plant,  parts  of  it  may  be  removed 
that  may  become  new  individuals  if  placed  under  proper  con- 
ditions of  heat  and  moisture.  Most  of  our  fruit  trees  may 
be  propagated  from  either  cuttings  of  shoots  or  of  the  roots. 
If  a  piece  of  tree  (cutting)  will  grow  without  roots,  what 
must  that  argue  as  to  the  condition  and  nature  of  the  sap 
within  such  cuttings  ?  Microscopic  sections  of  such  cuttings 
show  that  the  young  wood  cells  are  stored  full  of  starch  and 
other  concentrated  food  materials.  When  spring  comes,  with 
plenty  of  heat  and  moisture,  this  stored  food  is  transformed 
into  these  simpler  and  more  easily  transferred  food  materials 
which  a  plant  can  use  in  growth. 

This    requires    but   a   small   amount   of    water,    which    is 


92  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

readily  absorbed  through  the  bark  of  young  shoots  and 
through  the  thin  walled  cells  at  the  cut  end.  This  starts 
growth  and  activity.  But  before  growth  can  proceed  to  any 
appreciable  extent,  the  cutting  must  make  provision  for  a 
specialized  absorbing  surface  in  the  soil.  This  is  done  by 
throwing  out  at  first  a  set  of  delicate  multiplying  cells  from 
the  layer  of  young,  growing  and  dividing  cells  just  beneath 
the  bark  at  the  lower  end.  This  white  ring  of  protruding 
cells  is  known  technically  as  the  ''callus."  Nurserymen 
usually  assist  cuttings  to  form  this  callus  early  in  the  season, 
and  before  placing  them  in  the  nursery  row,  so  that  root 
growth  may  be  sure  to  precede  leaf  growth,  as  leaf  growth 
before  the  initial  steps  of  root  formation  take  place  usually 
proves  fatal  to  the  cutting. 

From  this  callus  the  young  rootlets  proceed  rapidly,  and 
as  they  operate  in  an  area  so  near  the  cutting,  it  is  led  with 
less  effort  and  more  rapidly  by  a  few  roots  than  it  could  be 
by  a  greater  number  located  farther  away.  Moreover,  it  is 
learned  from  a  rooted  cutting,  that  it  forms  a  set  of  roots 
that  take  a  direction  in  the  soil  similar  to  those  of  a  seedling 
of  the  same  variety ;  or,  in  other  words,  forms  its  roots,  both 
of  direction  and  penetration  into  the  soil,  and  in  a  uniform 
radiation  about  the  trunk,  compatible  with  its  nature  and 
habits  of  growth. 

Some  authorities  state  that  a  cutting  makes  a  "duck- 
footed"  set  of  roots.  Observation  over  a  wide  field  of  cut- 
tings, and  of  latitude  and  climate  in  which  they  have  been 
grown,  to  my  mind  thoroughly  disproves  any  such  statement. 
I  have  seen  Le  Conte  pear  cuttings  grown  upon  the  heaviest 
clay  subsoils  of  the  coast  region,  near  Galveston,  Texas,  that 
had  sent  down  vertical  roots,  penetrating  the  soil  over  four 
feet  the  first  season.  Some  tests,  made  in  a  small  way  with 
nursery  trees  and  stock,  gave  results  conclusive  enough  to 
show  that  an  important  subject  had  been  undertaken,  and 
that  it  would  justify  a  test  on  a  larger  scale.  In  April,  1890, 
170  Reeves  Favorite  peach  trees,  budded  on  Japan  stock, 
ninety-five  Ben  Davis  and  ninety-five  Red  Astrachan  apple 
trees — all  budded,  maiden  trees — were  procured  for  this  test. 


ROOT-PRUNING HOW    DEMONSTRATED.  93 

One-third  of  each  of  these  kinds  were  root  and  top-pruned, 
leaving  only  prongs  of  roots  one  to  three  inches  long ;  one- 
third  were  pruned  so  that  the  roots  were  from  five  to  seven 
inches  long,  and  the  remaining  third  were  not  root-pruned, 
except  that  the  ends  of  badly  mutilated  roots  were  removed. 
The  tops  were  in  every  case  removed,  leaving  the  apples 
about  2^  feet  long,  peaches  twenty  inches,  and  pears  about 
sixteen  inches.  No  selection  was  made  from  the  total  num- 
ber of  trees  for  each  lot,  except  that  the  poorest  rooted  ones, 
when  otherwise  of  the  same  vigor,  were  selected  to  be 
pruned,  thus  giving  a  seeming  advantage  to  the  unpruned 
trees.  The  pear  trees  were  cut  at  a  point  about  sixteen 
inches  from  the  root,  and  with  special  reference  to  five  or  six 
good  buds  to  be  used  as  the  basis  of  future  limb  growth. 

The  trees  were  all  set  side  by  side  in  a  uniform  soil,  about 
six  inches  deep,  in  a  common  plow  furrow.  Those  that  were 
root-pruned  were  set  with  three  or  four  times  the  speed  of 
those  with  a  mass  of  roots,  to  be  carefully  placed  and 
arranged  as  they  were  in  the  nursery.  They  all  received  fair 
culture,  such  as  would  be  given  by  any  orchardist,  with  a  com- 
mon Iron  Age  cultivator.  Notes  were  taken  several  times 
during  the  growing  season,  and  at  intervals  a  few  of  each  set 
were  taken  up  and  the  growth  and  character  of  the  roots 
noted.  Photography  was  freely  used  to  record  ,the  features 
of  growth. 

By  July  ii  the  unpruned  peach  trees  had  made  consider- 
ably more  growth  than  the  root-pruned  trees.  The  apples 
and  pears  showed  at  that  time  only  slight  differences  of 
growth  in  favor  of  the  unpruned  trees.  The  first  few  months 
the  root-pruned  trees  do  not  start  a  very  rapid  growth,  but  by 
fall  overtake  or  exceed  the  growth  of  the  un-root-pruned. 
We  did  not  lose  a  single  tree  from  any  of  the  sets. 

By  fall  the  unpruned  peach  trees  had  made  a  little  more 
growth  than  the  root-pruned,  but  they  were  not  of  as  even  a 
growth  as  the  root-pruned. 

In  case  of  the  pears,  the  root-pruned  were  far  more  uni- 
form in  growth,  and  anyone  could  see  that  they  had  outgrown 
those  that  started  the  season  with  a  full  set  of  roots. 


94  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

The  apples  showed  about  the  same  growth  in  both  cases  ; 
no  one  could  have  told  which  was  which  by  fall  without  the 
map.  The  examinations  of  the  roots  during  the  summer  de- 
veloped some  interesting  facts.  The  first  thing  noticed  on 
removing  the  trees  from  the  soil  was  that  the  old  roots  had 
retained  all  their  malformations,  twistings  and  the  horizontal 
position  they  had  acquired  some  way  in  the  nursery  or  in 
packing.  At  least  they  were  just  the  same  as  they  would 
have  been  if  cut  by  the  most  careful  planters.  The  several 
figures  bring  out  this  feature  very  forcibly.  Nearly  all  the 
young  feeding  roots  grew  from  the  tip  ends  of  the  old  roots, 
leaving  them  bare,  even  when  over  a  foot  long.  Only  an 
occasional  new  lateral  root  was  found.  This  threw  all  the 
absorbing  surface  some  distance  from  the  trunk.  Plant  phy- 
siology gives  us  a  general  law  which  states  that  the  farther 
sap  has  to  travel,  and  the  more  devious  its  path  of  transfer 
from  the  root  absorbents  (root  hairs)  to  the  leaves,  the  less 
the  growth  and  vigor  of  that  plant  in  a  given  period  of  time. 
Sap  is  retarded  in  its  circulation,  and  wood  formation  cannot 
go  on  as  rapidly  as  in  cases  where  the  sap  travels  short,  direct 
paths.  In  all  young  trees,  wood  is  the  first  and  indispensible 
product  of  growth  to  form  a  proper  basis  for  future  fruitful- 
ness.  After  a  tree  is  well  developed  and  supplied  with 
strong,  stocky  branches,  it  is  then  time  to  retard  the  sap  flow 
and  cause  fruit  buds  to  form. 

In  the  root-pruned  trees,  the  young  rootlets  sprang  as 
readily  from  the  large  circle  of  cambium  at  the  ends  of  the 
short  root  stubs  as  from  the  ends  of  the  longer  roots.  They 
came  out,  too,  in  greater  numbers  than  on  the  old  roots  on 
unpruned  trees,  the  ratio  being  about  ten  to  three.  These 
young  roots  clustered  close  about  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  mak- 
ing the  least  possible  distance  for  the  sap  to  travel.  It 
seemed  evident,  also,  that  new  roots  developed  much  faster 
where  the  sap  traveled  short  distances.  The  cut  ends  by  fall 
had  in  most  cases  completely  healed  over,  leaving  no  place 
for  rot  to  start. 

Another  very  important  feature  in  the  growth  of  young 
rootlets  noted,  is  that  those  on  the  unpruned  roots  took 


ROOT-PRUNING — HOW    DEMONSTRATED.  95 

about  the  same  direction  of  growth  in  the  soil  as  the  old  root 
was  placed  when  planted.  If  horizontal,  the  young  roots 
grew  off  horizontally  ;  if  inclined  downward  at  an  angle,  the 
young  roots  assumed  about  the  same  angle.  In  the  root- 
pruned  trees  the  young  roots  had  very  little  to  guide  their 
growth,  leaving  them  to  take  such  angles  as  are  found  in 
seedling  roots  of  the  same  variety.  In  other  words,  they 
were  put  into  such  a  condition  by  a  removal  of  nearly  all  the 
roots  back  to  the  collar,  that  they  could  take  on  a  new  root 
system  compatible  with  their  nature,  needs  and  seedling 
habits  of  growth.  By  the  old  method,  an  unnatural  system 
of  roots  are  forced  upon  a  tree.  This  system  of  roots  is  usu- 
ally irregular,  one-sided  and  poorly  directed  in  its  growth. 
Such  trees  are  usually  surface-rooted,  having  but  few,  if  any, 
deep,  penetrating  roots,  with  which  to  supply  the  tree  with 
an  abundance  of  water.  Drouth  and  deep  freezing  are  agents 
that  act  upon  and  shorten  the  lives  of  such  trees. 

The  newly  formed  roots  on  the  root-pruned  peach  trees 
were  found  to  penetrate  the  soil  at  an  average  angle  of  about 
forty  degrees.  Those  on  unpruned  trees  were  horizontal  and 
surface-feeding.  The  pear  was  about  the  same  as  the  peach, 
with  perhaps  more  that  penetrated  deeper  from  the  root- 
pruned  trees.  The  Ben  Davis  apple  followed  its  old  record 
of  holding  its  roots  rather  close  to  the  surface. 

The  next  season  other  kinds  of  trees,  and  more  of  peaches 
and  apples,  were  added  to  the  experiment,  to  note  the  effects 
of  a  different  season  and  to  give  a  wider  range  to  the  tests. 
Wild  Goose  and  Marianna  plums  on  Marianna  roots,  Black 
Tartarian  cherry  on  Mazzard  roots,  Mahaleb  cherry,  Norway 
spruce,  hemlock,  Lawson  cypress,  altheas,  privet  and  red 
cedar  were  added  to  the  list.  By  June  23  the  peach  and 
apple  trees — root-pruned  the  same  as  those  of  last  season- 
succeeded  about  the  same  as  those  planted  last  year.  This 
season  had  not  been  as  wet  as  last,  and  we  had  just  passed 
through  a  fairly  severe  drouth.  The  root-pruned  plums  are 
outgrowing  the  unpruned.  The  Black  Tartarian  cherry  trees 
are  not  doing  as  well.  Two  have  died,  and  others  are  not 
thriving.  This  may  be  due,  however,  to  the  wetness  of  the 


g6  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

location  and  the  tendency  of  the  soil  to  bake  just  where  they 
stand.  Those  top-pruned  and  roots  left  intact  are  thriving 
best.  The  Mahaleb  trees  are  doing  well. 

The  Norway  spruce  trees  show  but  little  signs  of  living 
under  the  treatment.  Only  one  out  of  three  is  living,  but  it 
has  made  a  fair  growth.  Those  with  roots  left  on  are  growing 
freely.  The  hemlocks  fared  even  worse  than  the  Norway 
spruce.  Two  out  of  three  are  yet  living,  but  have  not  grown 
any,  and  dry  weather  will  likely  kill  them.  Of  the  Lawson 
cypress,  one  is  living,  but  has  made  very  little  growth.  It 
will  probably  live.  Those,  however,  not  pruned  at  all  are 
doing  very  well.  Two  have  made  no  new  growth.  There  is 
very  little  difference  between  the  two  sets  of  California  privet. 
Both  have  thrown  out  shoots  from  four  to  eight  inches  long, 
those  with  unpruned  roots  slightly  in  the  lead.  The  root- 
pruned  altheas  are  starting  slowly,  but  none  have  died  or  will- 
likely  die.  The  red  cedar  {Juniperus  Virginiana]  shows  no 
difference  between  the  two  sets.  All  these  trees  were  set 
April  16,  1892.  [Entirely  too  late. — H.  M.  s.] 

This  season  shows  that  the  root-pruned  peach  trees  set  out 
last  year  are  equal  in  growth  and  size  to  those  unpruned. 
The  apple  trees  are  equal  in  size,  and  the  root-pruned  pears 
are  larger  than  their  checks. 

Some  of  the  trees  planted  last  year  that  were  taken  up 
during  the  fall  and  winter  to  be  photographed  and  examined 
were  root-pruned  and  set  out  again  last  April.  They  have 
thus  far  made  a  growth  equal  to  and  even  greater  than  a  few 
that  were  not  root-pruned.  This  shows  the  successful  growth 
of  a  two-year. old  root-pruned  tree.  This  is  about  the  extent 
of  the  evidence  thus  far  gathered  from  the  tests  I  have  made. 
As  the  trees  acquire  age,  they  will  show,  no  doubt,  other  facts 
that  cannot  be  presented  now,  except  as  observed  in  orchards 
in  other  parts  of  the  United  States,  where  the  root-pruned 
trees  excel. 

For  further  evidence  on  this  important  and  even  revolu- 
tionary system,  I  will  cite  some  trials  that  point  very  emphati- 
cally to  the  merits  of  this  system. 

The  honor  of    first  discovering  the  practicability  of  this 


ROOT-PRUNING — HOW    DEMONSTRATED.  97 

method  of  treating  trees,  and  of  recently  bringing  the  system 
prominently  before  the  public,  is  due  to  Mr.  H.  M.  String- 
fellow,  of  Hitchcock,  Texas,  near  Galveston.  Mr.  Stringfel- 
low  is  a  well-informed  gentleman,  a  college  graduate,  a  care- 
ful and  close  observer  of  nature,  and  is  an  enthusiastic, 
sagacious  fruit-grower  and  nurseryman  on  the  coast  plains 
of  Texas.  Fourteen  years  ago  he  planted  a  Le  Conte  and 
Kieffer  pear  orchard,  which  was  pronounced  by  about  sixty 
members  of  the  American  Horticultural  Society  who  passed 
through  it  in  February,  1890,  to  be  the  finest  orchard  of  the 
kind  they  had  seen,  and  probably  the  finest  in  America,  for 
its  uniformity  of  growth  and  the  utility  and  beauty  of  its 
training.  From  the  first  of  this  orchard  enterprise,  Mr. 
Stringfellow  began  a  study  of  tree  growth,  and  made  many 
tests  which  proved  to  him  that  our  old  methods  of  trans- 
planting and  training  were  very  erroneous,  and  he  concluded 
that  the  nearer  we  can  approach  to  a  seedling  when  our  trees 
are  set,  the  longer  lived,  healthier  and  more  productive  they 
will  be. 

His  tests  were  all  made  in  the  coast  regions  of  Texas, 
where  pear  trees  grow  freely  from  cuttings  ;  and,  in  fact,  cut- 
tings of  most  trees  grow  easily.  But  the  evidence  of  others 
shows  that  root-pruning  succeeds  in  various  parts  of  our 
country. 

Samuel  Edwards,  of  North  Peoria,  111.,  gives  an  account 
in  the  Fruit- Growers'  Journal,  of  a  lot  of  three-year-old 
assorted  trees  he  bought  from  a  Rochester  (N.  Y.)  nursery- 
man, and  which  were  so  delayed  on  the  road  and  so  frozen 
that  the  roots  were  badly  damaged.  He  cut  off  the  tops  to 
about  two  feet  and  the  roots  close  to  the  bodies,  and  set 
them  out  as  an  experiment.  He  says  they  all  grew  finely, 
making  handsome,  fruitful  trees. 

O.  E.  Hine,  of  Vienna,  Va.,  told  me  that  several  years 
ago  he  received  a  number  of  two-year  old  silver  maple  trees, 
with  badly  mutilated  roots.  He  cut  away  most  of  the  roots, 
reduced  the  tops  and  planted  them.  They  have  proved  to 
be  fine,  thrifty  trees. 

A.  W.  Harrison,  of  Alexandria,  Va. ,  tells  me  that  when 
7 — HORT. 


98  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

living  at  Montclair,  N.  J.,  he  transplanted  a  number  of  elm 
trees  from  the  forest  to  his  land.  He  pruned  away  nearly  all 
the  roots  and  all  the  top  except  a  straight  pole  about  eight 
feet  high.  These  trees  are  living  to-day,  and  are  fine  models 
of  vigor  and  beauty. 

C.  W.  Campbell  says  in  the  Florida  Dispatch  and  Fruit 
Grower  of  December  31,  1891:  ''For  a  month  during  our 
dryest  weather  I  had  been  transplanting  orange  trees,  and 
will  here  say  that  I  followed  the  plan  of  cutting  the  roots 
short  and  cutting  back  the  top  so  severely  as  to  leave  but 
little  of  it.  As  a  result,  I  have  never  had  so  good  success. 
Out  of  five  hundred  trees,  I  will  not  lose  one,  though  I  never 
planted  when  it  seemed  so  unfavorable  as  last  October.  In 
'February,  1886,  to  save  as  much  top  as  possible,  I  dug  the 
roots  as  long  as  I  could  possibly  get  them,  and  out  of  five 
hundred  I  don't  believe  there  are  fifty  living  to-day,  and  they 
have  never  made  a  good  growth." 

J.  H.  Hale,  of  South  Glastonbury,  Conn.,  writes  me  thus  : 
"You  will  recollect  talking  with  me  at  the  Pomological  Meet- 
ing in  Washington  last  September  in  regard  to  root-pruning 
of  peach  trees  at  time  of  planting.  Perhaps  it  will  interest 
you  to  know  that  in  planting  an  orchard  of  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  trees  at  Fort  Valley,  Ga.,  the  past  winter, 
we  root-pruned  the  whole  of  them  ;  and  now  our  orchard 
superintendent  reports  that  they  are  making  a  wonderful  new 
growth,  and  so  far,  not  a  missing  tree  can  be  found  in  the 
whole  hundred  thousand." 

M.  B.  Sturgus,  of  Hanover,  Jefferson  County,  Ind. 
(southern  part,  in  Ohio  Valley),  tells  me  that  he  planted  an 
orchard  of  peach  trees,  and  the  roots  of  a  large  part  of  the 
trees  were  so  poor  and  mutilated  that  he  cut  them  back 
severely.  After  a  year's  growth,  the  root-pruned,  to  a  tree, 
were  much  finer  than  those  not  root-pruned. 

I  have  heard  of  other  smaller  tests  that  resulted  the  same 
as  those  cited  above.  It  is  needless,  however,  to  multiply 
instances  where  root-pruning  at  the  time  of  transplanting  has 
been  successfully  tried.  The  best  and  most  conclusive 
evidence  is  that  resulting  from  a  personal  trial,  and  that  at 


ROOT-PRUNING HOW    DEMONSTRATED.  99 

least  every  grower  of  trees  should  make.  It  should  be  stated 
that  it  is  best  to  set  root-pruned  trees  in  the  spring,  as  they 
are  more  apt  to  be  heaved  than  other  trees  if  planted  in  the 
fall.  In  the  South  they  can  be  set  in  November  to  advantage, 
as  they  will  callus  at  once  and  form  roots  somewhat  during 
the  late  fall  and  winter. 

With  all  this  empirical  evidence  from  the  various  sections 
of  our  country,  and  my  own  experiments,  I  believe  I  am  safe 
in  stating  that  this  method  of  treating  trees  is  destined  to 
supplant  old  methods  to  a  large  extent,  and  with  a  larger 
range  of  species  and  varieties  than  has  yet  been  tried,  and 
that  it  has  a  number  of  important  advantages  over  old 
methods  which  will  give  a  new  stimulus  to  fruit  growing, 
and  result  in  a  new  system  of  training  and  after-treatment 
of  orchards. 


NOTE. — See  chapter  on    "Best  Time  and   Depth  to  Plant  Close  Root- 
pruned  Trees,"  for  remarks  on  Prof.  Brunk's  article. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Right  and  Wrong  Close  Root-Pruning. 

I  WISH  particularly  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
chief  object  in  close  root-pruning  is  to  concentrate  all 
the  vital  energy  of  the  newly  set  tree  on  a  limited  root- 
surface,  and  compel  it  to  strike  several  strong,  perpendicular 
tap-roots,  and  while  doing  this,  not  to  allow  its  attention  to  be 
diverted  to  forming  side  or  lateral  roots  at  the  same  time. 
By  examining  the  accompanying  illustration,  Fig.  i,  it  will  be 
seen  that  all  seedling  and  transplanted  trees  should  be  cut 
back  close  below  the  collar,  and  just  under  the  first  good  side 
roots,  and  not  leave  any  length  of  the  main  or  tap-root,  with 
side  roots  cut  back,  as  in  Fig.  2.  Such  trees  will  invariably 
at  once  strike  a  great  many  lateral  and  surface  roots  also, 
while  the  properly  root-pruned  tree  will,  the  first  season,  con- 
fine itself  almost  entirely  to  making  strong,  deep  ones,  with 
perhaps  less  top,  though  the  second  year  will  always  remedy 
that.  If  the  trees  should  be  too  large  to  root-prune  with  the 
shears  or  knife,  saw  off  the  tops  to  fifteen  or  eighteen  inches, 
lay  the  tree  on  its  side,  and  saw  off  all  the  roots  squarely  just 
below  the  crown  or  collar.  Trim  the  sawed  edges  with  a 
knife  to  make  them  callus  more  quickly.  As  stated  else- 
where, large  trees  can  be  treated  thus,  as  six-year-old  pear 
and  grape  vines  at  Hitchcock  are  now  fruiting,  that  have 
renewed  their  strength  like  young  trees,  it  being  a  general 
law  of  nature  that  once  a  tree,  especially  an  old  one,  is  taken 
from  the  ground,  the  old  roots  are  an  encumbrance,  and  its 
former  strength,  vigor  and  health  can  only  be  renewed  by 
compelling  it  to  re-establish  itself,  as  before,  on  an  entirely 
new  system. 

And  now,  in  answer  to  many  inquiries  as  to  the  size  of 
trees  which  may  be  successfully  transplanted.  If  closely 
root-pruned,  there  is  scarcely  any  limit.  While  universal 

(100) 


RIGHT     AND     WRONG     CLOSE     ROOT-PRUNING. 


101 


experience  has  shown,  beyond  all  doubt,  that  fruit  trees  and 
grape  vines  over  three  or  four  years  of  age,  if  set  with  long 
and  fibrous  roots,  are  inferior  to  smaller  ones,  the  rule  by  no 
means  holds  good  with  close  root-pruned  trees,  for  a  very 


RIGHT   CLOSE   ROOT-PRUNING. 


WRONG   CLOSE   ROOT-PRUNING. 


valuable  and  important  point  in  close  root-pruning  is,  that  it 
can  be  utilized  to  make  living  fence  posts  for  newly  enclosed 
farms,  fields  or  orchards.  A  china,  cotton-wood,  willow, 
hackberry  or  sycamore,  and,  I  presume  other  forest  trees  of 


IO2  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

large  size,  even  six  inches  or  more  in  diameter,  can  be  dug, 
all  the  roots  cut  back  close  to  the  body  and  tops  to  five  or  six 
feet,  and  planted  quite  deep,  just  like  a  fence  post,  well  ram- 
med, and  wire  stretched,  and  every  one  of  the  trees  named 
will  grow  off  quickly  and  make  nice  heads  by  fall,  and  large 
trees  the  second  season.  Every  orchard  should  have  such  a 
windbreak  around  and  through  it  at  wide  intervals.  Not  an 
evergreen  one,  to  keep  off  the  cold,  but  a  deciduous  one,  to 
break  the  force  of  summer  and  fall  winds,  that  every  year 
lash  thousands  of  bushels  of  half  grown  and  also  ripe  fruit 
from  the  trees.  I  lost  in  a  single  storm,  some  years  ago,  over 
two  thousand  bushels  of  pears,  blown  down  in  an  hour  amd 
buried  in  the  mud.  The  cottonwood  is  by  far  the  best  of  all 
trees  here  for  such  a  windbreak,  as  it  grows  very  tall,  and 
will  stand  any  storm,  if  grown  from  cuttings  or  root-pruned 
trees.  If  care  be  taken  to  select  cuttings  from  male  trees, 
the  nuisance  of  seed  and  cotton  will  be  avoided.  I  had  at 
Hitchcock  two  ten-acre  orchards  of  Garber  and  Le  Conte 
pears,  that  were  both  bisected  each  way  with  cottonwood 
when  the  pear  trees  were  set,  thus  cutting  each  ten-acre  lot 
into  four  blocks  of  2%  acres,  surrounded  now  on  all  sides 
with  tall  trees,  that  let  in  the  breezes  for  comfort,  but  com- 
pletely break  the  force  of  driving  summer  winds,  that  would 
blow  off  the  fruit.  In  fact,  to  plant  an  orchard  without 
proper  protection  is  pure  gambling,  as  the  Missouri  and 
Arkansas  growers  found  out  last  fall.  Car  load  after  car  load 
of  windfall  Ben  Davis  and  other  apples  were  shipped  here 
last  October,  that  had  been  whipped  off  by  a  strong  wind 
storm  that  swept  those  states.  While  the  roots  of  such  a 
windbreak  would  be  objectionable  on  vegetable  ground,  they 
do  no  harm  at  all  to  fruit  trees,  if  occasionally  fertilized,  as  is 
clearly  shown  in  my  orchards. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Best  Time  and  Depth  to  Plant. 

I  AM  afraid  that  many  persons  will  make  the  mistake  of 
planting  their  close  root-pruned  trees  too  deep  on  level 
ground,  under  the  erroneous  impression  that,  having 
so  little  root,  such  a  tree  will  find  it  difficult  to  establish 
and  sustain  itself  at  first.  If  they  will  but  reflect  that  the 
root-graft  and  the  cutting,  which  will  strike,  have  no  such 
trouble,  and  that  nature  plants  her  seeds  upon  the  bare  sur- 
face of  the  firm  ground,  and  trusts  to  the  wind,  with  leaves 
and  dust,  and  the  rain,  to  splash  a  thin  covering  around  or 
over  them,  they  must  see  that  a  strong,  close  root-pruned 
young  tree,  with  far  more  vital  energy  than  a  seed,  cannot 
fail  to  take  care  of  itself,  if  set  five  or  six  inches  deep  in  soil 
at  all  moist  and  well  firmed.  Of  course,  if  it  be  dry  that 
depth,  the  trees  must  be  watered  when  set.  But  this  applies 
to  sections  of  the  country  favored  with  a  reasonably  regular 
rainfall,  and  more  particularly  to  level  and  only  slightly  roll- 
ing ground.  On  elevated  uplands  and  hills,  the  depth  should 
be  increased  a  little,  and  all  through  the  dryer,  hilly  half  of 
our  state,  comprising  West  and  Northwest  Texas,  a  depth  of 
one  foot  would  be  none  too  much.  Of  course,  this  would 
require  a  total  length  of  eighteen  to  twenty-four  inches  of 
tree  when  set.  That  deep  planting  is  best  all  through  the 
latter  portions  of  the  state,  with  its  rocky,  limestone  subsoils, 
was  clearly  demonstrated  by  Wm.  Cook,  of  Lampasas,  one 
of  the  most  successful  and  observing  fruit-growers  I  ever  met. 
I  camped  for  a  month  near  his  orchard,  in  the  suburbs  of 
Lampasas,  fifteen  years  ago,  and  was  told  by  him  that  the 
finest,  longest-lived  and  most  productive  trees  of  all  kinds  he 
ever  grew  were  planted  two  feet  deep,  right  up  on  the  rocky 
hillside  and  top,  and  that  he  had  practically  drilled  the  holes 
out  of  the  almost  solid  limestone  soft  rock.  A  little  top  soil 

(103) 


104 


THE     NEW      HORTICULTURE. 


was  put  into  the  bottoms,  trees  were  set  two  feet  deep,  the 
holes  rilled  two-thirds  with  surface  soil,  and  a  bucket  of  water 
to  each  hole,  the  weather  having  been  dry  for  a  long  time. 
After  the  ground  had  settled,  the  holes  were  filled  level  and 
well  firmed  with  the  foot.  The  trees,  of  all  kinds,  not  only 
all  grew,  but  no  drouth  afterwards  even  seemed  to  affect 
them.  The  roots  had  necessarily  been  cut  back  quite  short, 
though  he  new  nothing  of  the  virtue  of  the  method.  Of 
course,  such  treatment  would  be  ruinous  on  level  or  moder- 
ately rolling  ground  with  a  clay  subsoil.  No  amount  of  rain 
can  ever  water-log  the  rocky,  porous  subsoils  of  West  Texas 
hills,  and  trees  of  all  kinds  should  be  planted  at  least  twelve 
inches  deep  or  deeper,  all  through  that  section.  The  rich  val- 
leys should  be  avoided  for  fruit,  not  only  because  of  occa- 
sional excessive  rains,  that  for  a  few  days  render  them  a  bog, 
but  worse  still,  because  such  locations  are  so  subject  to  late 
spring  frosts  as  to  render  crops  too  uncertain. 

And  now,  as  to  the  best  time  for  planting  close  root- 
pruned  trees  in  the  southern  states.  If  asked  the  very  best 
month,  I  would  say  December.  The  young  trees  to  be 
moved  have  then  gone  completely  to  rest,  and  while  the 
ground  is  still  warm  enough  to  encourage  root  action,  the  air 
is  not  sufficiently  warm  to  stimulate  a  new  growth  of  leaves 
after  planting,  which  often  happens  to  trees  moved  in  Novem- 
ber, especially  if  from  a  more  northern  latitude.  Still,  Jan- 
uary is  nearly  as  good  a  month,  and  all  through  February 
and  March,  up  to  the  very  starting  of  the  leaves,  if  the  soil 
is  moist,  such  trees  may  be  planted  with  perfect  success.  But 
they  will  not  grow  off  as  rapidly,  or  make  as  great  a  total 
growth  that  season,  as  those  planted  earlier.  At  the  North 
and  in  the  Middle  States,  as  Prof.  T.  L.  Brunk  remarks  else- 
where in  his  article,  if  trees  with  so  little  root  to  hold  them 
down  are  set  in  the  fall,  especially  on  deeply  pulverized  soil 
(a  worse  than  useless  preparation),  there  might  be  danger  of 
heaving  from  the  action  of  frost.  But  that  heaving  could 
easily  be  obviated  by  banking  the  earth  up  entirely  over  the 
one-foot  tops,  thus  protecting  them  the  first  season  from  the 
cold,  and  mice  and  rabbits  as  well.  The  advent  of  hot 


BEST     TIME     AND     DEPTH     TO     PLANT.  105 

weather  is  so  sudden  there  that  I  would  earnestly  recommend 
the  fall  for  planting  close  root-pruned  trees  all  over  the  Mid- 
dle and  Northern  States.  By  spring  new  roots  several  inches 
long  will  have  been  struck,  and  a  much  stronger  growth 
secured  the  first  season.  As  will  be  seen  from  Prof.  Brunk's 
experiments  in  Maryland,  his  trees  were  all  planted,  both 
fruit  and  evergreen,  on  the  i6th  of  April,  1892.  That  was 
entirely  too  late  to  get  the  best  result  the  first  season.  More- 
over, something  must  have  been  wrong  with  the  trees  or  con- 
ditions, when  the  althea  failed  to  start  and  do  well,  for  it 
grows  almost  anywhere  like  a  weed,  from  a  cutting  even. 
As  to  the  Norway  spruce,  hemlock  and  Lawson  cypress, 
I  know  nothing,  having  never  seen  them.  But  I  do  know 
that  the  oranges  both  sour,  sweet  and  trifoliate,  will  all  grow 
off  with  the  greatest  vigor  from  close  top  and  root-pruned 
trees,  and  thousands  of  orange  trees  are  being  thus  treated  in 
Florida  the  present  season.  They  may  also  be  thus  planted 
all  through  June,  July  and  August  with  perfect  success,  if  an 
additional  inch  and  a  few  fibrous  roots  are  left  on.  Last 
summer  I  never  lost  a  single  one  of  fifteen  hundred  young 
trifoliata,  planted  from  seed  in  February  and  transplanted 
into  nursery  rows  in  June,  when  about  six  inches  high.  By 
fall  some  of  them  were  three  feet  high,  all  having  been  root 
and  top-pruned  when  set,  and  firmly  tramped.  However, 
with  these  and  other  evergreens  each  one  can  experiment  for 
himself,  as  soil  may  have  something  to  do  with  results. 

HAVING  now  discussed  fully  the  first  cause — viz.,  long 
roots— of  the  general  decadence  and  unfruitfulness  of  latter- 
day  apple  and  pear  orchards,  and  given  a  summary  of  my  ex- 
perience as  to  the  best  methods  of  treating  and  planting  close 
root-pruned  trees,  I  will  in  the  next  chapter  go  on  with  the 
investigation. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Deep  Preparation  Wrong. 

AND  now  to  the  second  cause  of  deteriorated  orchards, 
which  I  claim  to  be  the  deep  plowing  and  pulverizing 
before  planting,  either  of  the  whole  orchard  or  of  sev- 
eral feet  where  the  tree  is  to  stand,  in  the  shape  of  large 
holes.  It  is,  indeed,  true  that  such  preparation  is  necessary 
for  long,  fibrous-rooted  trees,  such  as  our  nurserymen  now 
furnish  by  once  or  twice  transplanting,  for  such  trees  invari- 
ably re-establish  themselves  on  fibrous  roots  from  the  old  ones, 
being  unable  to  penetrate  a  firm  surface  or  subsoil.  More- 
over, such  a  loose,  well  pulverized  hole,  or  entire  plant-bed, 
will  undoubtedly  enable  such  trees  to  take  hold  and  make  an 
excellent  growth,  and  bear  well  for  some  years  ;  but  such 
preparation  is  entirely  artificial,  opposed  to  nature,  and 
infallibly  lays  the  foundation  for  permature  decay  and  death. 
In  furnishing  the  trees  described  a  loose,  porous  seed-bed, 
we  induce,  in  fact  compel,  them  to  confine  themselves 
almost  entirely  to  it.  I  saw  a  most  remarkable  example 
of  this  several  years  ago,  near  Seguin,  in  this  state.  A  most 
painstaking  fruit-grower  had  prepared  a  peach  orchard  after 
this  fashion,  the  trees  being  trimmed  high  to  allow  of  cultiva- 
tion, and  the  fourth  and  fifth  year  gathered  crops  of  excellent 
fruit.  In  the  summer  of  the  sixth  a  terrible  rain  and  wind 
storm  swept  over  that  section  and  laid  every  single  one  of 
those  peach  trees  flat  on  the  ground,  with  their  roots  in  the 
air.  I  wish  every  fruit  grower  could  have  seen  this  orchard, 
with  its  surface  and  lateral  root  system  scarcely  one  foot  in 
depth,  having  had  no  hold  on  the  subsoil,  excepting  through 
its  fibrous  roots.  Doubtless  many  have  had  such  an  experi- 
ence. But  suppose  these  trees  had  not  fallen?  Is  it  not  a  fair 
presumption  that  their  roots,  standing  for  several  days  in 
almost  liquid  mud,  under  a  July  sun,  would  have  been  injured  ? 

(106) 


DEEP     PREPARATION     WRONG.  107 

But  suppose  such  an  excessive  rain  had  fallen  at  the  North, 
and  the  thermometer  had  dropped  below  zero,  freezing  this 
one  foot  of  slush  and  roots  as  solid  as  a  rock  ?  Is  there  any 
wonder  that  trees  exposed  to  such  conditions  for  a  few  years, 
and,  as  a  rule,  allowed  to  overbear,  should  soon  yield  inferior 
crops,  and  die  young  ?  While  the  peach  would  surfer  most, 
no  tree  can  stand  such  treatment  uninjured.  So  much  for 
reason  and  experience  against  a  deeply- stirred  surface  soil. 

Now,  let  us  turn  to  nature.  As  I  said  before,  she  plants 
her  trees  with  neither  tops  or  roots,  on  the  surface  of  the 
firm,  unbroken  soil,  and  whether  it  be  an  apple  or  an  oak,  in 
the  valleys  or  on  the  hills,  she  grows  a  tree  unequalled  by  all 
the  care  and  skill  of  man.  Who  subsoiled  and  pulverized  for 
the  giant  red-woods  of  California,  the  towering  pines  of  Ore- 
gon and  the  South,  the  monster  sycamores  and  cottonwoods 
of  the  Middle  States,  or  dug  wide  holes  and  spread  out  their 
roots,  carefully  fingering  in  the  top  soil,  for  the  grand  old 
hickories,  walnuts,  elms  and  oaks  that  once  crowned  New 
England's  rock-ribbed  hills?  True,  these  are  forest  trees; 
but  how  about  the  old  original  Seckel  pear,  the  old  apple  tree 
that  shaded  Roger  Williams'  grave,  and  hundreds  of  ancient 
seedlings,  of  both  fruits,  that  gave  bounteous  yield  to  three 
and  four  generations  of  the  Pilgrims'  sons  ?  So  much  for 
nature's  testimony  in  favor  of  a  firm,  unbroken  soil. 

But  while  all  those  trees  were  seedlings,  I  claim  that  the 
close  root-pruned  tree  is  far  better  than  a  seedling.  The  life 
force  of  a  seed,  while  capable,  ultimately,  of  the  grand  devel- 
opments I  have  named,  is  primarily  very  weak.  Who  would 
suspect  that  the  great  Charter  Oak  lay  wrapped  in  the  tiny 
acorn,  which  probably  made  scarcely  a  foot  of  growth  the 
first  year,  or  that  the  embryo  sycamores  and  cottonwoods 
that  tower  in  the  river  bottoms  of  the  Middle  States  once 
floated  down,  almost  as  light  as  the  air  itself,  and  the  first 
year  made  but  a  few  inches  of  growth?  And  yet  a  close  root- 
pruned  cottonwood  tree  or  a  cutting  will,  in  this  section,  often 
grow  ten  feet  high  the  first  year.  The  potentiality  of  life  in 
the  root-pruned  tree  is  many  times  greater  than  in  the  seed, 
and  it  has  the  additional  advantage  of  striking  several  deep 


IO8  THE     NEW    HORTICULTURE. 

tap-roots  instead  of  one,  at  the  same  time  sending  them 
much  deeper  than  a  seedling  will.  I  have  repeatedly  dug  Le 
Conte  pear  trees  thus  treated  in  spring,  and  by  fall  found  four 
feet  of  almost  perpendicular  roots,  and  then  left  them  still 
going  down.  (See  the  pear  tree  I  hold  in  my  right  hand,  else- 
where.)  I  once  dug,  on  the  3rd  of  July,  a  spring-set  tree, 
and  broke  the  roots  at  three  feet  below  the  surface,  and  this 
on  unbroken  prairie  sod,  with  a  so-called  hard-pan  subsoil, 
into  which  a  post  hole  could  not  be  dug  except  with  a  ground 
auger  !  The  grass  was  killed  with  a  hoe  and  the  ground  kept 
clean  with  the  same,  and  top-dressed  well  with  cotton-seed 
meal  raked  in.  The  top  measured  four  feet  when  dug.  The 
penetrating  power  of  tree  roots  is  almost  incredible.  Nobody 
here,  on  Galveston  Island,  where  ground  cisterns  are  often 
used,  will  dare  to  plant  a  willow  or  china  tree  anywhere  near 
one.  I  saw  an  instance  where  a  willow  had  driven  its  roots 
through  a  twelve-inch  brick  and  mortar  wall  and  filled  up  the 
interior  almost  entirely.  I  could  fill  this  entire  chapter  with 
instances  of  the  wonderful  penetrating  power  of  root-pruned 
trees,  to  which  the  firmest  soil  seems  to  oppose  not  the 
slightest  obstruction,  but  will  cite  only  one- — a  Herbemont 
grape  vine  at  Hitchcock,  grown  from  a  cutting,  where  it 
stood  for  six  years,  and  of  large  size.  I  cut  the  roots  to  one- 
inch  stubs  and  top  to  twelve  inches,  after  planting  about  six 
inches  deep  the  second  time,  in  as  small  a  hole  as  I  could 
make,  in  ground  never  broken,  at  my  back  door.  It  was  top- 
dressed  with  bone  and  ashes,  after  ramming  as  tight  as  a  post. 
It  grew  two  six-feet  canes  the  first  year,  bore  full  the  sec- 

Vond,  covered  a  thirty-feet  trellis  the  third,  and  now  rambles 
half  over  a  large  cottonwood  tree,  and  has  borne  annually 
immense  crops  of  grapes,  with  never  a  spraying  or  a  sign  of 
disease,  while  all  the  cultivated  Herbemonts  in  the  neighbor- 
hood rot  nearly  every  year.  It  has  had  liberal  dressings  of 
bone  and  ashes  for  eight  years,  and  been  cultivated  entirely 
with  the  hoe. 

As  still  further  demonstrating  the  superiority  of  nature's 
method  of  a  firm,  unbroken  soil  for  seedling  and  close  root- 
pruned  trees,  I  will  say  that  a  part  of  my  Kieffer  orchard  at 


DEEP     PREPARATION     WRONG.  TOQ 

Hitchcock,  embracing  about  one-quarter  of  an  acre,  was 
originally  a  pond,  which  I  had  filled  up  fully  two  feet  with 
good  surface  soil  before  the  trees  were  set.  I  expected  to 
see  an  extraordinary  growth  on  this  spot,  and  was  greatly 
surprised,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  to  find  them  steadily  fall- 
ing behind  the  balance,  that  stood  on  ground  broken  only 
four  or  five  inches.  To  remedy  this,  to  me,  then,  most  mys- 
terious condition  of  things,  I  yearly  applied  an  increased 
quantity  of  fertilizer  to  this  spot,  but  without  avail,  and  now, 
at  the  end  of  fourteen  years,  it  is  plainly  discernible  by  the 
inferior  size  of  the  trees  that  stand  upon  it. 

I  will  now  close  this  part  of  my  subject  with  a  letter 
recently  received  from  Mr.  C.  B.  Patterson,  of  Payne's 
Depot,  Scott  County,  Ky. 

MR.  H.  M.  STRINGFELLOW. 

Dear  Sir — Having  read  with  great  interest  your  article  in  Texas 
Farm  and  Ranch  on  the  subject  of  "  A  Deep  Preparation  of  the 
Ground  for  Trees  Wrong,"  please  allow  me  to  thank  you  for  a  per- 
fectly clear  explanation  of  a  mystery  in  horticulture  that  greatly 
puzzled  my  old  father,  now  dead,  as  well  as  myself,  and  all  my 
neighbors  who  know  the  fact.  The  old  man  was  always  a  great  lover 
of  trees,  and  as  the  black  walnut  is  a  natural  growth  here,  wherever 
the  squirrels  hid  the  nuts  in  fall,  around  in  the  scattering  woods,  that 
stood  on  his  virgin  pasture  soil,  as  they  often  c!id,  he  would  fence  in 
the  young  groves  in  spots  where  the  trees  came  up,  to  protect  them 
from  the  stock.  In  a  few  years,  tall,  vigorous,  handsome  walnut 
groves  rewarded  his  care,  with  no  other  attention,  for  the  young  trees 
seemed  to  laugh  at  the  blue-grass  sod.  But  wishing  to  extend  these 
plantings  to  a  place  neglected  by  the  squirrels  when  they  hid  their 
winter  store,  my  father  one  day  announced  his  intention  of  -beating 
them  as  a  tree  grower,  and  accordingly  fenced  off  several  acres, 
which  he  had  plowed  and  harrowed  several  times,  and  most 
thoroughly  prepared.  When  all  was  ready  the  places  were  checked 
off,  and,  like  the  squirrels,  he  planted  the  nuts.  They  came  up 
nicely,  and  had  the  best  of  attention  for  several  years,  when  he 
turned  them  over  to  the  grass  as  the  squirrels'  trees  were.  But  all 
to  no  purpose,  for  from  the  very  first,  in  spite  of  all  his  care,  he  never 
could  make  his  trees  grow  like  theirs,  and  died  in  total  ignorance  as 
to  how  or  why  they  beat  him.  This  was  twenty  years  or  more  ago, 
and  the  trees  are  still  standing  here,  to  show  for  themselves,  not 
more  than  half  as  high  or  large  as  those  planted  by  the  squirrels 
on  the  unbroken  virgin  sod.  It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  furnish 
you  this  living  and  unanswerable  proof  of  the  correctness  of  your 
position,  that  for  tree  seed,  and,  I  presume,  your  close  root-pruned 
trees,  which  you  claim  to  be  even  superior  to  seed,  a  firm,  unbroken 


HO  THE    NEW    HORTICULTURE. 

soil,  like  nature  chooses,  is  better  than  any  preparation  man  can 
make.  I  will  further  add  that  about  ten  years  ago  I  turned  out  a 
part  of  a  cultivated  field  adjoining  that  woodland  pasture,  and  the 
squirrels  have  tried  their  hands  on  it  also,  but  with  no  better  luck 
than  my  father,  for  the  trees  are  just  as  scrubby  and  inferior  to  those 
alongside  in  the  woods,  as  were  his,  and  we  call  them  "cornfield" 
walnuts,  to  designate  their  inferiority. 

Yours  very  truly, 

C.   B.   PATTERSON. 

A  few  days  after  receiving  this  letter,  I  came  across  the 
following,  in  the  New  York  Sun,  which  was  so  strongly  cor- 
roborative that  I  cut  it  out  : 

The  finest  shipment  of  walnut  for  1895  came  from  Texas,  but  as 
a  rule  Indiana  walnut  is  the  best.  Kentucky  has  more  than  any 
other  state,  but  it  does  not  average  as  high  as  in  Indiana.  The 
largest  walnut  mill  in  the  world  is  in  Chicago,  and  it  uses  about  three 
thousand  car  loads  a  year.  Fifty  dollars  per  thousand  is  about  the 
average  price  for  the  best  grade  of  walnut,  and  this  is  all  natural 
forest  groivth,  what  is  known  as  "cornfield"  walnut  being  hard,  irregu- 
lar, and  has  more  or  less  windshakes.  Figured  walnut  is  very 
costly,  and  is  used  for  veneering.  One  man  in  West  Virginia  owns  a 
figured  tree  which  cost  him  one  thousand  dollars,  for  which  he  has 
refused  three  thousand,  and  asks  four  thousand,  there  being  over  six 
thousand  feet  of  lumber  in  it. 

With  all  this  indisputable  evidence  of  the  vast  superiority 
of  the  firm,  solid  seed-bed,  on  which  nature  plants  her  trees, 
is  it  possible  to  resist  the  conclusion  that,  while  poor,  long, 
fibrous-rooted  trees  need  soft  ground  and  to  be  "fed  with  a 
spoon,"  the  sturdy  seedling  and  close  root-pruned  tree  de- 
light to  overcome  the  resistance  of  unbroken  ground  ? 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Cultivation. 

THE  following  remarks  are  intended  to  be  of  general 
application  all  over  the  country,  but  in  regard  to  the 
peach,  I  would  especially  commend  them  to  our  coast 
country  fruit-growers.  If  asked  the  very  best  location  and 
treatment  for  a  peach  orchard  here,  I  would  answer  most  em- 
phatically, one  broken  just  as  shallow  as  possible,  and  with 
root-pruned  trees,  planted  in  as  small  holes  as  possible,  and 
rammed  tight.  Or,  better  still,  the  unbroken  prairie  sod,  the 
grass  being  killed  for  a  foot  or  so  where  the  trees  are  to  stand, 
and  the  whole  ground  "cultivated  "  with  a  mowing  machine 
often  enough  to  keep  the  grass  down  to  within  four  or  five 
inches  at  the  outside,  and  better  less.  Root-pruned  trees  on 
fairly  well  drained  ground,  thus  treated  and  fertilized  moder- 
ately, will  live  for  many  years  and  bear  fine  crops  of  large 
fruit,  while  those  on  deeply  stirred  soil  and  annually  plowed 
will  invariably  die  inside  of  six  years  ;  at  least  those  set  with 
long  roots  will,  and  very  likely  the  root-pruned  also,  for  the 
peach  cannot  stand  a  loose  surfaced,  saturated  soil  in  this 
level  country. 

Having  shown,  first,  that  a  long  and  fibrous-rooted  is  a 
radically  wrong  form  of  tree  for  planting  ;  and  secondly,  that 
large  holes  and  a  deeply  pulverized  soil,  in  which  such  trees 
are  ordinarily  set,  and  which  they  fill  in  a  few  years  with  the 
bulk  of  their  roots,  are  receptacles  for  holding  the  semi-stag- 
nant water,  often  for  days,  even  on  well-drained  ground,  dur- 
ing and  after  continued  heavy  rains,  followed  by  scalding  sun- 
shine in  summer  and  also  intense  cold  in  winter  at  the  North, 
I  will  now  take  up  the  third  probable  cause  of  the  early  de- 
cline and  death  of  many  latter-day  orchards,  especially  the 
peach,  and  that  is,  the  annual  more  or  less  deep  plowing  to 
which  nearly  all  are  subjected,  all  over  the  country. 

(in) 


U2  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

The  almost  universal  practice  is  to  plow  at  least  once  a 
year,  and  then  cultivate  more  or  less  deeply  until  midsummer. 
While  the  trees  are  young  and  vigorous,  and  for  the  first  few 
years  of  bearing,  all  such  orchards  give  their  best  results  ;  but 
when  once  in  full  bearing,  no  surface-rooted  trees,  especially 
the  peach,  such  as  I  am  now  describing,  can  stand  the  drain 
of  a  continual  cutting  of  their  roots  and  live  long,  or  give 
fruit  of  marketable  size  unless  heavily  fertilized  every  year, 
and  at  least  four-fifths  of  the  crop  removed  by  hand,  early  in 
the  season.  This  is  the  system  hitherto  adopted  by  the  suc- 
cessful peach  grower,  Mr.  Hale,  with  his  orchards  grown  from 
long-rooted  trees,  and  by  which  method  he  manages  to  make 
them  profitable  for  ten  or  twelve  years.  Having  never  tested 
it  myself  on  close  root-pruned  trees,  I  am  very  curious  to  see 
how  it  is  going  to  work  on  that  immense  orchard  in  Georgia, 
planted  after  my  method  and  on  ground  hitherto  skimmed 
over  a  few  inches  deep  for  corn  and  cotton,  according  to  the 
usual  southern  style.  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  never 
read  of  it,  I  will  say  that  Mr.  Hale,  when  the  cotton  was  off, 
without  any  hole  digging  or  additional  plowing,  simply  in- 
serted a  spade  about  six  inches  deep  where  the  trees  were  to 
stand,  and,  pushing  the  handle  back  just  far  enough  to  allow 
of  the  little  one-inch  rooted  trees  being  stuck  down  behind  it, 
withdrew  the  spade  and  pressed  the  soil  back  firmly  with  the 
foot.  Of  course,  the  short  roots  must  have  rested  flat  on  the 
so-called  hard-pan  or  subsoil,  that  from  creation's  dawn  was 
never  broken.  From  what  I  have  read,  he  is  now  subsoiling 
the  middles,  intends  to  plow  every  winter,  and  cultivate  clean 
until  midsummer,  apply  free  dressings  of  bone  and  potash 
annually,  and  thin  out  the  fruit  severely  by  hand.  I  will 
watch  the  results  with  a  great  deal  of  interest.  Ground  be- 
comes boggy,  after  excessive  rains,  only  just  so  deep  as  it  has 
been  stirred,  and  it  will  become  so  after  such  rains  for  many 
years,  thus  greatly  increasing  the  danger  of  injury  to  the 
roots  as  the  trees  on  subsoiled  ground  get  older,  as  well  as 
rendering  it  almost  impossible  to  drive  wagons  over  it,  if  a 
prolonged  wet  spell  should  occur  when  the  fruit  is  ripe. 

But  to  proceed   with  the   surface  roots  of  fruit  trees,  the 


CULTIVATION.  113 

intimate  relation  between  which  and  the  fruit  itself  has  been 
greatly  overlooked.  Every  careful  observer  must  have  noticed 
that  in  orchards,  even  from  long-rooted  trees,  while  young 
and  growing,  the  fine,  delicate  little  feeding  roots  do  not  hunt 
the  immediate  surface  like  they  do  when  the  trees  begin  to 
bear.  While  the  trees  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  grow,  these 
roots  seem  content  to  forage  around  six  inches  or  more  under 
the  surface,  and  for  this  reason,  plowing  and  deep  cultivation 
during  that  period  seems  to  do  no  harm,  though  cultivation 
deeper  than  necessary  for  killing  grass  and  weeds  is  of  no 
actual  benefit  to  the  root-pruned  trees,  nor  in  fact  to  any 
other,  and  may,  on  ground  not  perfectly  drained,  as  noted 
above,  do  harm,  after  excessive  rains.  I  have  often  wondered 
just  what  the  relation  was  between  each  leaf  and  fruit  and  the 
root,  and  whether  the  former  were  not  dependent  to  a  certain 
extent  on  the  good  offices  of  certain  individual  roots  on  the 
surface.  That  in  a  general  way  the  perfect  development  of 
the  fruit  does  depend  largely  on  these  surface  roots  can  easily 
be  shown,  by  selecting  a  row  of  trees,  for  instance,  in  an 
apple  orchard  that  has  stood  several  years  in  sod.  Plow  one 
row  five  or  six  inches  deep  in  spring, and  cultivate  and  mow 
the  others,  never  letting  the  grass  get  over  four  inches  high. 
Fertilize  neither,  and  unless  apple  trees  act  differently  from 
peach  and  pear  trees  here,  the  fruit  on  the  mowed  land  will 
be  much  the  finest.  As  a  further  test,  apply  equal  quantities 
of  a  good  fertilizer  to  certain  trees  on  the  sod  and  cultivated 
ground,  and  the  difference  in  favor  of  the  sod  will  be  surpris- 
ing. But,  returning  to  the  exact  relation  between  the  leaves 
and  roots,  the  diagram  on  page  114  clearly  shows  that  to  a 
certain  extent  and  in  a  general  way  there  is  such  a  correspond- 
ing relation.  The  diagram  represents  a  bed  or  section  in  the 
Galveston  City  Park,  through  which  I  pass  every  day  on  my 
way  down  town.  Having  no  particular  use  for  the  scrapings 
from  the  paved  streets,  the  superintendent  concluded  to  fertil- 
ize as  well  as  raise  the  grade  of  the  whole  park  about  one 
foot.  This  bed  was  selected  as  the  starting  point,  and  load 
after  load,  largely  composed  of  pulverized  horse  manure,  was 
dumped  and  evenly  spread  about  one  foot  deep  and  nicely 
8— HORT. 


THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 


raked  off.  A  start  was  then  made  on  the  section  adjoining  on 
the  left,  but  before  it  was  completed  a  very  heavy  rain  fell, 
thoroughly  saturating  the  mass  and  wetting  the  sod  ground 
below.  In  forty-eight  hours,  and  before  work  was  begun 
again,  every  leaf  on  the  liveoak  trees  in  the  center  began  to 
turn  brown,  and  in  a  week  were  as  dry  and  dead  as  if  they 
had  been  parched.  Two  cedar  trees  that  stood  about  four 
feet  from  the  edge  were  affected  similarly,  one  losing  all  the 
foliage  and  the  other  about  half.  But  the  point  to  be  noticed 
is  that  the  two  large  liveoaks  standing  at  the  immediate  angle 
of  the  two  manured  plots  lost  their  leaves  in  a  triangular 


This  diagram  represents  a  section  of  the  Galveston  City  Park.  The  squares  represent 
trees— i,  i,  the  large  liveoaks  ;  2,  2,  liveoaks  ;  3,  3,  the  cedars  mentioned  in  the  text— the 
shaded  portions  representing  living  foliage,  aud  the  unshaded  dead. 

shape,  just  above  and  corresponding  to  the  shape  of  the  ma- 
nured ground  below,  while  all  the  balance  of  the  foliage  on 
both  trees  over  the  unmanured  ground  is  still  fresh  and  green, 
though  two  months  have  gone  by.  An  examination  of  the 
ground  will  be  made  next  spring  to  see  the  effect  on  the  roots, 
but  so  far  the  young  twigs  seem  to  be  unhurt.  A  fair  pre- 
sumption is  that  only  the  fine  hair  roots  were  hurt  or  killed  by 
the  ammonia,  but  the  question  is,  if  those  had  been  fruit  trees 
about  to  bloom  in  spring,  would  not  the  destruction  of  five  or 
six  inches  of  the  surface  feeding-roots  by  the  plow  instead  of 
by  the  manure,  have  so  weakened  their  vitality  as  to  cause  a 


CULTIVATION.  115 

failure  of  the  fruit  to  set,  or  a  subsequent  shedding  if  the  sea- 
son was  bad  ?  Furthermore,  suppose  a  severe  drouth  fol- 
lowed, as  often  does,  would  not  the  loss  of  those  roots  not 
only  interfere  greatly  with  the  development  of  the  crop  that 
remained,  but  seriously  impair  the  vitality  of  the  trees  them- 
selves ?  In  thousands  of  orchards  over  the  country  this  pro- 
cess is  kept  up  for  years,  tearing  up  the  roots  from  spring  till 
summer,  then  leaving  the  trees  the  balance  of  the  season  for 
replacing  them,  only  to  repeat  the  operation  of  destruction 
the  next  spring. 

After  adopting  a  form  of  tree  that  induces  or  compels  it 
to  root  shallow,  allowing  it  to  bear  all  it  will,  and  furnishing 
it  no  extra  supply  of  food,  is  there  any  wonder,  after  all  this, 
supplemented  by  an  annual  ripping  up  of  the  roots  them- 
selves, that  orchards  grow  prematurely  old  ?  Of  course,  I 
am  now  writing  of  the  general  run  of  orchards,  to  which 
there  are  thousands  of  honorable  exceptions  all  over  the 
country,  both  cultivated  and  in  grass,  where  careful  pruning 
and  thinning  of  fruit,  as  well  as  a  free  use  of  manure  and 
shallow  cultivation,  have  attained  the  best  results  for  a  time; 
but  the  fact  still  stands  that  the  profitable  bearing  period  of 
all  fruit  trees  has  been  steadily  shortening  of  late  years,  and 
I  feel  confident  that  this  is  largely  due  to  the  three  causes 
now  given,  aggravated  by  two  others  yet  to  be  treated. 

I  will  now  briefly  allude  to  a  few  other  benefits  from  plant- 
ing close  root-pruned  trees  of  all  kinds  on  ground  plowed  as 
shallow  as  possible,  or  better,  in  virgin  sod,  if  practicable, 
and  mowing  or  cultivating  shallow  immediately  around  the 
trees  from  the  day  they  are  set,  and  a  few  years  later  putting 
the  whole  ground  down  to  some  kind  of  grass,  whatever  may 
be  best  for  different  sections,  mowing  close,  at  least  until  the 
fruit  is  gone,  and-top  dressing  annually  with  some  form  of 
potash  and  phosphoric  acid.  Here  Bermuda  grass  would 
head  the  list.  I  know  of  peach  trees  standing  where  they 
came  up  in  this  city,  in  a  compact  Bermuda  sod,  that  has 
been  closely  cut  with  a  lawn-mower  for  twelve  years,  that  are 
to-day  pictures  of  health  and  vigor.  They  have  been  moder- 
ately pruned,  have  never  failed  of  a  heavy  crop,  have  never 


Il6  THE     NEW      HORTICULTURE. 

been  thinned,  and  yet  fruit  is  always  large  and  fine.  From 
time  to  time  the  lawn  has  been  manured.  Trees  of  this  age 
that  were  set  with  long  roots  and  plowed  regularly  afterward 
can  nowhere  be  shown  in  this  whole  section.  In  fact,  six 
years  is  the  utmost  limit,  in  this  level  country,  of  the  latter 
treatment,  and  the  fruit  is  far  inferior. 

One  great  advantage  of  the  above  general  system  for  all 
fruit  trees  is  that  no  tree  trunk  will  ever  sun-scald.  This 
comes  entirely  from  the  inability  of  a  tree  grown  from  long 
roots  and  annually  plowed,  to  supply  a  free  enough  flow  of 
sap,  during  hot  and  very  dry  weather,  to  prevent  stagnation 
and  scald  on  the  side  exposed  to  the  afternoon  sun.  A  close- 
pruned  tree,  with  its  deeply  penetrating  roots,  will  never  fail 
to  do  this. 

A  second  advantage  is  that  fruit  grown  on  trees  standing 
in  firm  soil,  undisturbed,  will  in  rainy  seasons  be  of  far  better 
eating  and  shipping  qualities  than  that  from  trees  whose  roots 
are  gorged  with  water,  in  a  deep,  loose  soil,  no  matter  though 
well  drained.  This  I  know  to  be  a  fact. 

A  third  advantage  will  be  a  great  increase  in  the  hardiness 
of  all  fruit  trees  in  northern  latitudes.  I  am  confident  all 
varieties,  especially  the  peach,  can  be  grown  with  perfect 
success  where  now  they  winter-kill  every  year. 

A  fourth  advantage  is  a  firm  roadway  for  hauling  out  the 
fruit  in  wet  weather. 

A  fifth  and  final  advantage  is  economy.  Far  superior  f ruit, 
and  at  a  cost  of  twenty-five  cents  on  the  dollar,  as  compared 
with  old  methods  and  long-rooted  trees. 

As  going  to  show  that  these  principles  are  true,  and  that 
there  is  an  increasing  feeling  of  doubt  and  dissatisfaction 
with  present  methods  and  their  results  as  exemplified  in  the 
orchards  of  to-day,  grown,  as  all  of  them  are,  from  long-rooted 
trees,  several  years  old  when  set,  I  will  close  this  part  of  my 
subject  with  a  quotation  from  the  April  issue  of  Green's 
Fruit  Grower,  published  at  Rochester,  in  the  center  of  the 
great  fruit-growing  district  of  Western  New  York.  Mr.  P. 
C.  Reynolds,  a  regular  contributor,  and  evidently  a  horticul- 


CULTIVATION.  I  17 

turist  of  long  and  wide  experience,  writing  of  their  present 
unproductive  apple  orchards,  says  : 

"In  my  earliest  recollection,  little  thought  was  given  to  the  cul- 
ture of  the  orchard  for  the  orchard's  sake.  So  long  as  profitable 
crops  could  be  grown  among  the  trees,  the  orchard  was  cultivated. 
When  cropping  ceased  to  be  profitable,  cultivation  ceased,  or  if  any 
was  done,  it  was  done  by  the  snouts  of  swine.  And  yet  I  can  hardly 
recall  a  season,  during  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  my  life,  that 
apples  were  not  abundant.  Some  seasons,  certain  favorite  varieties, 
like  Early  Harvest,  Sweet  Bough,  Fall  Pippin,  etc.,  bore  heavier 
crops  than  in  others,  but  they  were  rarely  entirely  barren. 

"The  older  members  of  the  Western  New  York  Horticultural 
Society  will  remember  how  often  this  subject  came  up  before  the 
society  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  years  ago.  Patrick  Barry,  John 
J.  Thomas,  Elisha  Moody,  J.  S.  Woodward,  S.  D.  Willard,  and  many 
other  gentlemen,  eminently  successful  fruit-growers,  urged  the  im- 
portance of  thorough  cultivation  and,  after  the  trees  should  become 
so  large  as  to  require  all  the  ground,  making  the  growing  of  annual 
crops  unprofitable  and  inconvenient,  they  would  continue  culture  for 
the  benefit  of  trees  and  fruit.  On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  E.  Ware 
Sylvester,  Henry  E.  Hooker,  Godfrey  Zimmerman,  James  A.  Root, 
and  a  few  others,  insisted  that  after  apple  trees  have  reached  bear- 
ing age,  as  much,  or  more,  fruit  could  be  produced  by  seeding  down 
to  grass  as  by  cultivation,  provided  no  grass  was  removed  from  the 
orchard,  but  was  mowed  and  left  upon  the  ground  as  mulch,  or  pas- 
tured by  hogs  or  sheep.  The  mooted  question  was  never  definitely 
settled  by  the  society,  but  comes  up  frequently  of  late  years.  Both 
parties  have  been  able  to  instance  many  proofs  of  their  side  of  the 
controversy.  From  many  years  of  observation  among  orchardists, 
and  from  my  own  experience,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
fruitfulness  depends  more  upon  several  other  conditions  than  upon 
cultivation,  after  the  trees  have  arrived  at  bearing  age. 

"Now,  I  would  lend  all  possible  encouragement  for  the  feeding- 
roots  of  apple  trees  to  ramify  and  forage  freely  in  this  surface  soil, 
near  enough  the  surface  to  be  benefited  by  the  heat  of  the  sun  and 
the  vivifying  effects  of  the  atmosphere  and  its  fructifying  gases.  I 
would  be  very  careful  not  to  drive  those  roots  to  the  cold,  inert, 
sterile  subsoil,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  benign  influences  of  that 
atmosphere  of  heat  and  gases  that  permeates  the  surface  soil,  where 
myriads  of  living  organisms,  in  the  humus,  carry  on  the  work  of 
nitrification.  Subsequent  cultivation  would  be  carried  on  with  the 
purpose  of  avoiding  the  disturbance  of  the  roots  in  their  best  feeding 
ground,  and  keeping  the  soil  pulverized  and  mellow  beyond  the  roots, 
for  their  future  occupancy.  I  would  leave,  every  year, a  considerable 
space  around  every  tree  beyond  that  covered  by  the  branches,  to  be 
filled  by  the  season's  growth  of  the  roots,  upon  which  I  would  plant 
nothing,  for  it  is  very  poor  policy  to  place  the  roots  of  annuals  in 
competition  with  the  roots  of  the  trees  for  the  plant-food  and  moist- 
ure of  the  soil.  Hence,  every  year,  the  space  around  the  trees, 
upon  which  no  annual  would  be  planted,  would  broaden  until  but 


Il8  THE     NEW     HOR'lICULTURE. 

narrow  stripes  between  the  rows  of  trees  would  be  deeply  plowed. 
Probably  the  soil  above  the  roots  could  then  be  most  economically 
kept  mellow  by  means  of  a  cultivator,  or  of  some  of  the  most  effec- 
tive of  modern  harrows.  When  the  time  arrives  that  the  roots  of 
the  trees  nearly  fill  the  soil,  and  the  land  should  be  entirely  devoted 
to  the  trees  and  fruit,  and  the  growing  of  temporary  crops  ceases,  the 
question  presents  itself  :  'Should  the  surface  be  still  cultivated,  or 
should  it  be  seeded  down  ?  '  If  seeded  to  grass,  I  am  quite  positive 
that  no  grass,  in  any  form,  should  be  removed  from  the  orchard  ;  it 
should  be  mowed  frequently,  and  left  as  a  mulch  upon  the  ground,  or 
it  should  be  pastured  closely  with  sheep  or  swine.  Which  of  these 
species  of  animals  it  would  be  advisable  to  keep  upon  the  orchard 
would  depend  largely  upon  the  fruit-grower's  ability  to  handle  the 
animals  with  most  profit.  Most  men  would  probably  do  better  with 
swine  than  sheep.  There  has  been  less  decline  in  the  price  of  pork, 
for  several  years,  than  in  the  price  of  wool.  If  sheep  were  kept, 
mutton  sheep  are  preferable.  Mr.  Woodward  and  many  others  claim 
that  sheep  are  better  gleaners  of  fallen  apples  and  the  insects  they 
contain  than  swine. 

"Another  question  of  momentous  importance  in  connection  with 
this  subject  is  :  '  Which  would  best  conserve  the  moisture  in  the  soil, 
a  mellow  surface  or  a  surface  covered  with  grass  ? '  Experience 
would  unhesitatingly  say,  a  mellow  surface.  Yet,  if  the  grass  were 
mowed  before  it  blossomed,  and  left  spread  upon  the  ground,  as  a 
mowing-machine  leaves  it,  before  the  advent  of  the  dry  season,  the 
mulch  would  afford  nearly  as  much  protection  to  the  roots,  perhaps 
quite  as  much,  as  a  mulch  of  mellow  soil.  I  really  question  whether 
it  makes  a  great  deal  of  difference  in  the  productiveness  of  orchards, 
after  they  have  come  into  bearing,  and  their  roots  pretty  much  fill 
the  soil,  whether  the  surface  is  kept  mellow  by  frequent  cultivation, 
or  is  seeded  to  grass  and  kept  mulched,  or  pastured  with  sheep  or 
swine,  provided  the  trees  are  liberally  supplied  with  plant  food.  Ac- 
cording to  my  observation  for  several  years,  since  attention  was 
called  to  this  question,  the  most  productive  old  orchards  have  been 
in  sod.  Whether  the  sod  was  an  efficient  cause  of  that  productive- 
ness, or  some  other  causes  were  dominant,  I  am  unable  to  say." 

H.  B.  Hillyer,  of  Belton,  Texas,  closes  a  letter  on  the 
subject  of  "Cultivation  of  Orchards"  as  follows  : 

"But  is  cultivation  of  a  bearing  orchard  necessary?  May  not 
Mr.  Stringfellow  be  right?  I  am  leaning  to  that  opinion.  I  have  a 
beautiful  orchard,  thirty  varieties  of  peaches,  twenty  of  plums,  twenty 
of  grapes,  twelve  of  pears,  four  of  apples,  five  of  figs,  five  of  apricots, 
two  of  nectarines,  two  of  blackberries.  My  orchard  is  cultivated 
nicely.  I  have  some  twelve  or  fourteen  peach  trees  in  my  yard  and 
chicken  run.  These  have  never  been  cultivated,  but  have  been  sur- 
face manured.  Last  year,  on  account  of  severe  cold,  fruit  in  all  of 
this  section  was  almost  a  failure,  was  an  entire  failure  in  my  culti- 
vated orchard,  while  the  trees  in  my  yard  and  chicken  run  made  good 
crops,  some  of  them  as  much  as  four  or  five  bushels.  This  season 


CULTIVATION.  I  19 

we  had  two  white  frosts,  most  of  the  Japan  plums  were  killed,  all  the 
apricots  are  killed,  and  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  fruit  in  the  culti- 
vated orchard  is  killed  and  some  trees  have  no  fruit  at  all,  and  some 
hardy  varieties  have  a  fair  crop,  while  all  the  peach  trees  in  my  uncul- 
tivated yards  are  full  as  they  can  bear  of  fruit.  This  experience  of 
two  years  has  at  least  convinced  me  never  again  to  plow  an  orchard 
until  all  danger  of  frost  is  over. 

"My  garden  is  very  rich;  is  spaded  every  year  with  a  prong 
spade.  Dirt  is  not  turned  over,  to  avoid  injury  to  the  roots  as  much 
as  possible.  These  trees  have  been  carefully  pruned ;  have  been  shy 
bearers  of  fine  fruit ;  are  five  years  old  and  are  badly  sun  scalded — 
will  barely  live  another  year. 

"A  negro  man  near  me  had  an  orchard  a  few  years  ago  that  he 
annually  planted  in  corn  or  cotton ;  the  trees  are  all  dead,  but  along 
his  fence  he  put  out  some  trees  twenty-five  years  ago.  They  have 
grown  in  weeds  that  never  have  been  plowed  or  hoed  or  mown  down. 
These  trees  are  still  free  from  sun  scald  and  bearing  good  crops  of 
fine  fruit. 

' '  What  does  all  this  mean  ?  " 


CHAPTER   X. 

flight. 

HAVING  discussed  three   of  the  causes  that  are   at  the 
bottom  of  the  general  complaint  of  declining  orchards 
everywhere  throughout  the  eastern  half  of  the  United 
States,  we  now  come  to  the  fourth  ;  that  is,  disease. 

In  human  physiology,  the  last  few  years  of  scientific 
research  have  developed  the  most  wonderful  discoveries. 
Mysteries  that  were  dark,  and  problems  hidden  for  ages,  are 
now  made  as  clear  as  day  by  the  germ  theory  of  disease  in  the 
human  system.  And  not  only  are  diseases  accounted  for  and 
explained  on  this  theory  and  by  actual  observations  under  the 
microscope,  but  also  the  commonest  functions  of  our  bodies, 
such  as  digestion,  and  other  useful  fermentations,  as  those  of 
yeast,  wine,  beer,  the  nitrification  of  the  soil,  are  all  due  to 
the  incubation  and  multiplication  of  millions  of  those  myste- 
rious little  spores,  germs,  microbes,  bacilli,  bacteria,  etc., 
good,  bad  and  indifferent,  that  swarm  everywhere  in  the  earth, 
the  air,  our  bodies,  and  everything  on  the  earth.  These  facts 
are,  of  course,  known  and  admitted  everywhere,  and  science 
has  been  and  is  now  devoting  all  its  energies  to  the  discovery 
of  the  laws  and  conditions  which  regulate  and  govern  these 
infinitesimal  creatures  in  their  propagation  and  relation  to 
disease  in  the  human  system.  But,  while  the  majority  of 
scientists  have  turned  their  attention  to  man  and  his  bacterial 
friends  and  enemies,  Professors  Burrill,  Galloway  and  others 
are  giving  their  best  endeavors  to  the  study  and  elucidation 
of  the  subject  in  connection  with  the  diseases  of  plants, 
especially  the  various  forms  of  blight  of  the  apple  and  pear, 
and  the  yellows  in  the  peach.  That  these  diseases,  as  well  as 
root-rot  and  black-knot  of  the  peach  and  plum,  are  due  to  the 
presence  in  the  sap  of  minute  organisms  known  as  bacteria, 
seems  clearly  established,  and  that  probably  epidemics,  as 

(120) 


BLIGHT.  121 

well  as  local  attacks  on  trees,  occur  from  a  vastly  increased 
generation  of  them,  brought  about  by  certain  favorable  con- 
ditions. Herein  lies  the  whole  problem  of  bacterial  life,  both 
in  man,  trees  and  everything.  It  is  simply  a  question  in  both 
of  conditions.  For  instance,  if  yeast  be  mixed  with  dough 
and  placed  in  a  temperature  below  freezing,  the  mass  will  not 
rise;  nor  if  placed  at  once  in  a  heated  stove  will  it  rise.  Both 
are  wrong  conditions.  Now,  let  scientists  find  out  for  us  just 
what  are  the  conditions  under  which  these  bacteria  multiply 
so  enormously  in  the  sap  of  trees  as  to  cause  the  phenomena 
we  call  blight,  yellows,  etc.  With  a  view  to  aid  in  solving 
this  problem,  I  present  some  observations  from  my  own  ex- 
perience, as  well  as  a  few  suggestions  on  the  subject. 

There  are  two  main  points  to  be  considered  :  i.  Where 
do  the  bacteria  of  blight,  for  instance,  come  from?  2.  What 
are  the  conditions  most  favorable  for  their  propagation  in 
numbers  sufficient  to  produce  the  effect  called  blight  ?  There 
are  but  three  possible  answers  to  the  first  question.  Leaving 
out  the  one-time  accepted  theory  of  spontaneous  generation, 
which  science  has  demonstrated  to  be  false,  air  sterilized  by 
heat  and  kept  from  contact  with  the  atmosphere  showing  no 
signs  of  bacterial  life  so  long  as  thus  excluded,  the  bacteria 
of  blight  come  either  from  the  soil,  from  the  air,  or  they  are 
indigenous  to  the  sap  itself,  of  course  in  numbers  ordinarily 
harmless.  That  they  are  taken  up  by  the  tree  from  the  soil 
has  no  advocates  that  I  am  aware  of,  the  generally  accepted 
theory  being  that  they  are  strictly  external  to  the  tree,  and 
make  their  attack  from  the  outside.  Witness  the  statement 
that  blight  spreads,  that  the  fruit  spurs  and  tender  shoots  are 
most  liable  to  attack,  and  directions  to  cut  back  the  affected 
parts.  Of  course,  the  latter  would  do  no  good  if  the  bacteria 
were  already  in  the  sap  of  the  tree.  That  they  are  thus  in- 
digenous to  and  in  the  sap  of  every  pear  and  apple  tree  now, 
and  always  have  been,  is  the  only  possible  hypothesis  which 
will  explain  all  the  phenomena  of  blight.  For  instance,  an 
apparently  healthy  pear  tree  may  be  planted  miles  away  from 
any  other  tree,  and  yet  when  the  proper  conditions  arise, 
which  I  will  presently  explain,  it  will  show  blight.  Are  we 


122  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

to  suppose,  on  the  external  theory,  that  the  whole  atmosphere 
is  alive  with  the  bacteria  of  blight  ?  Again,  as  a  rule,  blight 
develops  worst  on  the  most  vigorous,  healthy  trees,  in  clean, 
cultivated  ground?  How  shall  we  account  for  this,  when  all 
experience  with  man,  animals  and  trees,  under  the  attacks  of 
insect  pests,  goes  to  show  that  the  strongest  and  most  vigor- 
ous always  best  resist  injurious  attacks  ?  Again,  why,  if  the 
bacteria  of  blight  are  in  the  air  and  attack  from  the  outside, 
does  any  tree  escape  ?  All  are  equally  exposed,  and  the 
weakly  tree  should  certainly  succumb  as  readily  as  the  strong. 
But  the  hypothesis  that  these  bacteria  are  in  and  a  part  of  all 
pear  and  apple  trees  in  limited  numbers,  and,  under  certain 
normal  conditions  play,  perhaps,  a  specific,  useful  part  in  the 
life  and  development  of  the  trees,  will  cover  and  explain  all 
the  phenomena  of  blight.  A  contrary  supposition  demands 
the  belief  in  an  actual  creation  one  hundred  years  or  so  ago, 
when  this  disease  first  appeared,  else  why  were  pear  and 
apple  trees  never  attacked  before  ?  Simply  because  the  con- 
ditions for  their  development  in  destructive  numbers  had 
never  been  furnished.  That  the  eastern  half  of  the  United 
States,  say  from  Kansas  and  Texas  to  Canada,  with  its  ex- 
tremes of  wet  and  dry,  heat  and  cold,  often  in  rapid  succes- 
sion, present  ideal  conditions  for  all  bacterial  diseases  of 
trees,  there  is  no  doubt,  and  if  there  is  a  region  in  the  world 
where  they  could  originate  it  would  be  there.  I  have  often 
wished  that  we  knew  the  exact  history  of  the  trees  upon 
which  blight  originally  appeared  in  New  England,  from  the 
time  they  were  planted  until  the  disease  broke  out.  I  think, 
however,  it  would  read  somewhat  thus  : 

The  ground  was  deeply  plowed,  well  pulverized  and  ma- 
nured, or  naturally  rich,  and  the  trees  when  set  were  about 
three  years  old,  well  provided  with  long  as  well  as  fibrous 
roots,  which  were  nicely  spread  out  in  large  holes.  They 
were  then  well  cultivated  and  cared  for,  especially  in  the  way 
of  a  good  plowing  every  year,  until  they  came  into  bearing, 
the  first  light  crops  being  very  fine,  and  when  loaded  down 
with  their  first  very  heavy  crop,  all  of  which  the  owner  left 
on,  the  season  turned  out  very  dry.  Being  largely  surface- 


BLIGHT.  123 

rooted,  they  made  practically  no  wood  growth,  having  all  they 
could  do  to  mature  the  fruit.  The  owner,  seeing  the  strain 
put  upon  them,  concluded  to  relieve  them  the  next  year,  and 
pruned  heavily  during  the  fall  or  early  winter.  The  weather 
subsequently  was  very  mild  and  open,  and  having  practically 
rested  during  summer  from  severe  drouth  and  their  heavy 
load,  and  stimulated  by  the  removal  of  a  large  part  of  the 
tops,  the  sap  began  to  move  freely.  Then  came  a  stinging 
freeze,  perhaps  just  after  a  heavy  rain,  freezing  the  roots  as 
well  as  tops,  completely  checking  the  moving  sap  for  a  month 
or  two.  That  was  not  a  late  spring  but  a  late  winter  freeze, 
producing  a  stagnation,  so  to  speak,  of  the  sap.  Had  that 
freeze  occurred  after  growth  had  started  well  no  harm  might 
have  occurred,  as  motion  would  have  been  resumed  at  once, 
but  standing  for  a  month  or  more  the  sap,  to  use  a  common 
expression,  "soured." 

Now,  there,  in  that  sap,  was  the  ideal  condition  in  which 
the  hitherto  harmless  blight  bacteria  love  to  revel,  run  riot, 
fondle  one  another,  perhaps,  in  amorous  dalliance,  and  mul- 
tiply by  billions.  The  owner  was  surprised  to  see  how  slow 
the  leaves  were  in  putting  out,  the  blossoms,  if  any,  having 
opened  profusely  and  dropped  before  a  shade  of  green  ap- 
peared. When  the  time  came  for  some  of  the  young  pears  to 
drop  from  each  cluster,  they  largely  refused  to  do  so,  but 
dried  up  on  the  fruit  spurs,  and  turned  black.  There,  before 
a  leaf  or  shoot  had  shown  a  sign,  was  the  blight,  and  those 
fruit  spurs,  the  tender,  vital  points  of  its  first  development ; 
just  as  the  bacilli  of  consumption,  lurking  through  heredity 
for  years  in  the  system  of  an  apparently  healthy  man,  if 
favoring  conditions  of  development  are  given,  such  as  ex- 
treme overheating,  followed  by  sudden  change  to  wet  or  cold, 
will  concentrate  upon  their  favorite  point,  the  lungs,  and 
multiply  rapidly  into  millions.  The  former  were  the  condi- 
tions for  blight,  the  latter  for  consumption.  Had  the  trees 
or  man  not  furnished  them,  both  might  have  lived,  and  died 
from  other  causes. 

I  will  now  furnish  proofs  that  will  show  beyond  all  reason- 
able doubt — proofs  which  can  be  verified  by  observation  and 


124  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

experiment — that  blight  is  entirely  a  matter  of  conditions  of 
temperature,  moisture  and  pruning.  Also,  that  all  its  vary- 
ing phases,  as  well  as  hitherto  unexplained  phenomena,  can 
be  completely  accounted  for  under  the  hypothesis  of  a  natural, 
or  at  least  present,  existence  of  the  germs  in  limited  num- 
bers in  the  sap  of  all  pear  trees,  which,  under  certain  given 
conditions,  are  capable  of  multiplying  beyond  conception, 
resulting  in  what  we  call  "blight."  I  will  show  plainly  how, 
from  analogies  drawn  from  the  known  actions  of  such  organ- 
isms in  the  human  system,  that  bacteria,  having  once  effected 
a  lodgment  or  developed  in  the  sap,  corresponding  to  the 
blood  in  us,  of  those  pear  trees  in  New  England,  all  other 
pear  trees  in  the  country  must  almost  necessarily  now  have 
some  of  the  bacteria  in  their  sap.  I  will  also  make  it  clear 
why  this  dreaded  disease  has  never  prevailed  in  California,  or 
but  twice  to  a  very  limited  extent  in  the  whole  coast  country 
of  Texas,  though  pear  trees  of  the  old  varieties,  unproductive 
but  healthy,  have  been  growing  here  for  twenty-five  years.  I 
think  I  can  also  satisfy  everyone  that  the  conditions  of  blight 
are  so  completely  under  our  control  that  pear  orchards  may 
be  planted  from  henceforth  which,  like  the  old  original  (the 
January  number  of  the  Horticultural  Visitor,  Kirmundy,  111., 
contains  a  photograph  of  this  tree)  seedling  Sudduth  pear 
tree,  now  standing  near  Springfield,  111.,  ten  feet  in  circum- 
ference of  trunk,  fifty-five  feet  high  and  seventy-five  years  old, 
will  long  outlive  the  planter.  This  grand  old  pear  tree,  in 
perfect  health,  still  bearing  enormous  crops,  a  landmark  for 
all  the  surrounding  country,  is  a  towering  monument  to  the 
infinite  superiority  of  nature  and  her  methods.  While  man, 
with  his  science  and  his  plows,  his  hoes  and  his  cultivators, 
has  ripped  and  torn  and  scratched  the  surface  of  the  ground  ; 
has  dug  his  big  holes  and  spread  the  roots  most  carefully  by 
hand,  a  single  tiny  seed  was  dropped  upon  the  firm  but  kindly 
bosom  of  the  earth,  and  there  to-day  stands  in  silent  majesty 
this  evidence  of  her  skill.  Where,  now,  are  the  cultivated, 
pruned  and  fertilized  pear  orchards  of  that  state  and  the  whole 
country,  upon  which  untold  money  and  weary  days  of  labor 
have  been  wasted,  as  well  as  bright  hopes  wrecked  in  those 


BLIGHT.  125 

seventy-five  long  years  ?     But  now  to  my  theory  of  blight,  its 
cause  and  prevention,  and  in  certain  cases  perhaps  its  cure. 

It  is  well-known  that  long  before  bacilli  or  bacteria  were 
ever  heard  of,  eminent  medical  authority  had  declared  that 
few,  if  any,  human  beings  were  perfectly  healthy,  a  close 
examination  always  revealing  some  weak  point  in  every  one. 
If  by  healthy  we  mean  blood  absolutely  free  from  the  bacilli 
or  germs  of  disease,  then  we  may,  in  view  of  the  wonderful 
revelations  of  bacteriology,  assert  with  the  utmost  confidence, 
that  there  is  not  such  a  human  being  on  the  earth.  With  all 
the  various  germs  of  malaria  floating  in  the  atmosphere,  and 
those  of  every  variety  of  epidemic  that  at  one  time  or  another 
has  scourged  humanity,  taken  into  the  blood  through  the 
lungs ;  the  bacilli  of  typhoid  and  other  malignant  fevers  intro- 
duced into  the  system  through  milk  and  water,  and  once- 
there,  though  never  developed  in  numbers  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce specific  attacks,  still  there,  for  not  only  our  lives,  but, 
through  heredity  the  lives  of  our  descendants  to  the  remotest 
generation,  is  it  credible  that  there  exists  to-day  a  single 
absolutely  healthy  being  ?  In  the  blood  of  every  person  who 
has  at  any  time  visited  a  consumptive  friend  lurks  the  dreaded 
bacilli  of  that  scourge  of  the  human  race,  and  so  with  all  other 
diseases.  That  in  so  few  instances  they  show  it  by  an  active 
outburst  is  simply  due  to  a  want  of  the  proper  conditions  for 
the  rapid  and  infinite  multiplication  of  the  germs.  Thus  we 
see  that  we  are  carrying  around  in  our  blood  chained  tigers, 
so  to  speak,  ready  at  any  moment  to  devour  us,  if  we  slip 
their  chains  by  furnishing  the  conditions  for  an  abnormal 
development. 

But  while  all  this  is  true  of  man,  science  tells  us  that  it  is 
partially  true  of  plants  also.  But  thus  far  science  has  failed  to 
determine  their  relation  to  plants,  or  define  their  exact  meth- 
ods of  attack  and  development  in  the  sap  or  blood  of  the  tree. 
The  general,  if  not  universal  hypothesis  is,  as  stated  above, 
that  the  bacteria  are  in  the  air  primarily,  and  when  plants  or 
trees  furnish  the  proper  conditions,  the  phenomena  which  we 
call  blight,  for  instance,  occurs  from  an  external  attack.  But 
reasoning  from  analogy,  is  this  necessarily  so?  It  is  plain 


126  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

that  there  is  a  most  marked  similarity  between  the  diseases  of 
man  and  trees.  We  have  the  quick  and  fatal  work  of  the 
cholera  germs  duplicated  in  the  blight;  the  slow,  insidious 
method  of  consumption  in  the  yellows,  while  the  black-knot 
and  root-rot  furnish  an  excellent  counterpart  to  the  various 
forms  of  scrofula. 

Now,  then,  admitting  that  the  germs  are  already  in  the 
human  blood,  if  we  can  show  how  a  like  condition  probably 
exists  in  the  sap  of  all  trees,  the  problem  of  blight,  yellows, 
black-knot  and  root-rot  will  be  solved,  provided  we  can  show 
how  the  conditions  for  their  development  can  be  prevented. 
However,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that,  while  the  bacteria  are 
already  in  the  sap,  they  may  not  also  be  in  the  atmosphere, 
and  in  epidemics  of  blight  or  yellows,  for  instance,  very 
greatly  aggravate  the  attack. 

Now,  then,  for  the  proof  that  all  pear  trees,  for  instance, 
are  probably  infected  with  the  bacteria  of  blight.  It  will  be 
no  valid  objection  to  say  that  if  so,  the  microscope  would 
show  it,  for  the  quantity  of  sap  exposed  beneath  a  powerful 
instrument  is  so  exceedingly  small  that  while  the  bacteria  in 
the  sap  of  a  badly  diseased  tree  might  be  seen,  they  could 
easily  exist  in  that  of  an  apparently  healthy  tree  in  numbers 
that  would  escape  detection. 

Remember,  then,  that  when  the  first  outbreaks  of  blight 
occurred  at  several  points  in  New  England  and  the  eastern 
states,  and  admitting,  for  argument's  sake,  that  the  attacks 
were  strictly  external,  fruit  culture  there,  as  a  science,  was  far 
in  advance  of  the  balance  of  the  country,  nurseries  much 
larger,  as  well  as  more  numerous,  and  orchards  more  exten- 
sive, we  see  how  easily  and  rapidly  the  bacteria  of  blight  must 
have  spread.  Every  breeze  bore  them  by  millions,  not  only 
in  the  air,  but  in  the  pollen  of  infected  trees,  to  other  trees  in 
bloom,  or  dropped  them  on  surfaces  cut  or  wounded  by  the 
hoe  or  plow.  Every  insect  and  bee  carried  them  for  miles 
around.  The  busy  woodpecker  and  sapsucker  took  them  on 
their  bills  from  diseased  trees  and  drilled  them  into  healthy 
ones,  whence  buds  and  cuttings  carried  them  to  the  nurseries. 
Once  there,  dissemination,  of  course,  took  a  wider  range, until 


BLIGHT.  127 

in  a  few  years  the  whole  East  was  infected.  To  prove  how 
rapidly  this  can  be  accomplished,  I  need  only  refer  to  the 
recent  introduction  of  the  San  Jos£  scale  into  New  Jersey,  and 
elsewhere  throughout  the  country.  If  a  slow  traveling  fly  and 
insect  could  so  quickly  be  scattered  far  and  wide,  what  shall 
we  say  or  how  limit  the  spread  of  the  subtle  bacteria  ?  Of 
course,  I  am  presuming  that,  once  in  the  sap  of  a  tree,  they 
remained  there,  often  in  numbers,  perhaps,  too  limited,  or 
from  want  of  proper  conditions  for  development,  unable  to 
produce  the  blight.  The  eastern  states,  the  nursery  grounds 
at  that  time  for  the  whole  country,  once  thoroughly  infected, 
we  see  how  almost  of  necessity  the  bacteria  were  rapidly 
scattered  in  nursery  stock  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
and  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf^of  Mexico.  That  this  infection  did 
actually  occur  all  over  the  eastern  half  of  our  country  is 
proved  by  continuous  developments  of  blight,  from  time  to 
time,  in  different  localities  throughout  this  whole  region,  fol- 
lowing rapidly  after  its  original  appearance  in  the  East. 

While,  then,  the  presumption  of  the  present  existence  of 
these  bacteria  in  all  pear  trees  is  a  fair  one,  it  is  a  known  fact 
that  they  do  pervade  the  sap  of  all  pear  trees  on  which  the 
external  evidences  of  blight  have  manifested  themselves,  fruit 
growers  having  been  repeatedly  warned  to  cleanse  their  knives 
and  shears  thoroughly  after  pruning  diseased  trees.  Now, 
then,  admitting,  as  the  authorities  on  this  subject  do,  that  the 
sap  of  all  such  trees  does  contain  the  bacteria,  the  presump- 
tion is  that  they  remain  there  in  greater  or  less  numbers,  and 
the  burden  of  proof  is  on  them  to  show  the  contrary. 

We  come,  now,  to  the  vital  question  :  What  are  the 
actual  causes  of,  or  rather  conditions  for,  the  visible  mani- 
festations of  blight  ?  I  stated  in  another  place  that  tempera- 
ture, moisture,  and  pruning  in  certain  cases  were  at  the 
bottom  of  it,  and  foreshadowed  in  my  supposed  history  of  its 
original  appearance  a  theory,  and  the  only  one  that  will  com- 
pletely account  for  all  the  phenomena.  And  right  here  I 
have  to  make  an  assertion,  positively  true,  but  quite  as  revo- 
lutionary as  that  regarding  the  best  form  of  a  tree  for  plant- 
ing, which  is,  that  the  universal  statement  that  the  "best 


128  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

time  to  prune  a  tree  is  when  it  is  at  rest"  is  exactly  the 
opposite  of  the  truth,  the  best  time  to  prune  being  when  the 
sap  is  in  motion. 

As  pointed  out  all  along,  there  is  a  close  analogy  between 
man   and   trees  in  the  matter   of  diseases,  and   the   same   is 
equally  true   as   to   their  physical  growth  and  development. 
They  both  have  alternate  periods  of  activity  and  rest,  the  lat- 
ter   following    as    an    apparent    necessity   from    the    former. 
Man's  rest  is  the  half  or  a  portion  of  every  day,  and  to  wake 
him  up  every  night  at  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock  and  repeat  it 
several  times  before  day,  on  the  score  of  hygiene,  would  be 
considered   queer  treatment.      A  tree's  rest   is  the  half  or  a 
portion  of  every  year,  and  that  is  the  very  treatment  we  adopt 
for  our  trees.      No  sooner  have  the  leaves  fallen  and  the  trees 
settled  themselves  for  a  comfortable  winter's  rest,  than  many 
owners,   having  leisure   at  that   time,    and  to    save    work   in 
spring,  come  along  with  their  manure,  perhaps,  or  else  plow 
the  ground,  thus  making  soluble  plant  food  that  would  have 
lain    dormant    until    spring.      However    dormant    trees    may 
appear,    if  with  our  variable  climate  a  prolonged  warm  spell 
occurs,  and  particularly  if  the  owner  prunes  considerably  at: 
this   same  time  of  leisure,  the  equilibrium  between  the  tops- 
and  roots  being  destroyed,  there  must  be  more  or  less  motion 
of  the  sap  to  repair  the  damage.      This  plowing,  pruning  and 
cultivating  during  the  winter  and  early  spring  are  our  methods- 
of  breaking  the  rest  of  our  trees,  and  so  effectual  are  they  that 
the  blooms  and  leaves  often  start  long  before  they  would  had 
the  trees  been  let  alone.      But  there  is  a  condition,  in  this  va- 
riable climate  of  ours,  that  greatly  increases  the  danger  of  this 
winter  movement  of  the  sap,  and  that  is  a  prolonged  drouth 
the  preceding  spring  and  summer,  which  is  the  almost  infal- 
lible condition  precedent  of  blight  the  next  year,  if  followed 
by  a  late  winter  or  early  spring  freeze. 

Remember,  now,  that  rest  in  trees  can  be  produced  by  ex- 
cessive heat  and  drouth,  as  well  as  excessive  cold,  for  I  have 
seen  orange  trees  curl  and  shed  their  leaves  under  such  con- 
ditions in  July,  and  become  more  dormant  than  usual  in 
midwinter  here.  If  pear  trees  are  forced  to  rest  in  summer 


BLIGHT.  129 

from  such  conditions,  and  all  surface-rooted  ones  from  long- 
rooted  trees  are  necessarily  compelled  to  rest,  especially  if 
carrying  a  heavy  crop,  then,  stimulated  by  the  plowing,  fertil- 
izing and  winter  pruning  described,  if  a  mild  spell  occurs  any 
time  in  winter,  a  movement  of  the  sap  is  sure  to  take  place. 
It  may  not  show  itself  in  leaves  or  blooms,  for  it  does  not  in 
the  grape;  but  the  movement  will  be  there,  and  if  that  motion 
be  checked  by  a  freeze,  and  the  sap  stagnate  or  sour,  so  to> 
speak,  for  a  month  or  more  before  growth  starts  again,  then1 
blight  is  certain  to  occur.  We  have  furnished,  then,  the  con- 
ditions for  an  abnormal  development  and  propagation  by  mil- 
lions of  the  bacteria,  and  I  pointed  out  above  the  course  of 
that  development.  The  blooms  first  show  it,  next  the  fruit 
spurs,  then  after  warm  rains  and  muggy  weather  later  on,  the 
tender  shoots  blacken  and  droop,  and  the  disease  spreads  to 
the  limbs  around  the  base  of  the  fruit  spurs.  Now,  then,  for 
some  of  the  unexplained  phenomena  of  blight. 

1.  Why  do  the  most    vigorous  trees  in    well  cultivated 
ground  surfer  oftener  than  the  weakly  ones  alongside,  or  in 
grass?     Because,  given  the  conditions  for  blight  described,, 
the  vigorous  tree  will  certainly  be   most   susceptible   to  the 
stimulating  treatment  named,  and  in  addition,  the  owner  is- 
sure,  in  his  desire  to  produce  a  more  uniform  appearance  of 
the  orchard,  to  cut  back  the  long  canes  on  it  very  severely,, 
while  the  weakly  tree  often,  in  fact  generally,  escapes   the 
knife  altogether.      I    years  ago  treated    trees   just   that  way 
myself,  and  know  that  the  sap  in  a  heavily  pruned,  vigorous 
young  tree  will  be  in  full  flow  or  motion  in  a  warm  spell  in- 
winter,  when  the  other  is  still  quite  dormant,  and  fails  to  fur- 
nish   the    conditions  for   the   bacterial  development  within. 
The  germs  were  in  the  sap  of  the  weaker  one  also,  but,  the 
proper  conditions  not  being  furnished,  failed  to  develop,  just 
as  in  every  cholera  or  yellow  fever  epidemic,  certain  persons- 
escape  those  diseases,  and  yet  in  food,  water  and  air  the  germs 
must    have    gotten   into    their    blood,    if    not    there    before. 
Science  has  yet  to  determine  the  exact  conditions  in  man  and 
trees  that  govern  their  development. 

2.  Why  has  blight  never  appeared  in  California?     First, 

9 — HORT. 


I^O  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

because  trees  are  irrigated  there,  and,  consequently,  always 
make  a  normal  summer  growth  ;  they  never  rest  entirely  at 
that  season.  Secondly,  because  they  are  never  exposed  to 
the  proper  extremes  of  temperature  in  winter,  the  climate  be- 
ing cool,  moist  and  uniform  during  that  period,  and  the  trees, 
having  performed  their  work  throughout  the  long  summer, 
are  content  to  rest.  Having  been  brought  mostly  from  the 
east,  the  pear  trees  must  necessarily  have  the  blight  bacteria 
in  their  sap,  but  the  extremes  of  heat,  drouth,  floods  and  cold 
are  lacking  for  their  development. 

Now,  lastly,  why  did  blight  break  out  in  my  pear  orchard 
in  1894,  after  years  of  bearing,  and  when  a  case  was  never 
known  in  this  section  before  ?  But  as  the  experience  of  this 
orchard  furnishes  an  absolute  demonstration  of  my  hypothe- 
sis that  blight  bacteria  exist  at  all  times  in  all  pear  trees,  in 
perhaps  a  modified  form  and  subject  to  certain  conditions, 
which,  being  given,  they  are  capable  of  rapid  as  well  as 
almost  infinite  multiplication,  I  will  defer  the  discussion  of  it 
until  the  next  chapter,  when  some  experiments  in  pruning  at 
different  times  from  spring  until  summer  will  also  be  given, 
which  go  to  show  beyond  all  doubt  that  the  proper,  and,  in 
fact,  the  only  time  when  any  tree  should  be  pruned  is,  though 
contrary  to  general  teaching,  when  the  sap  is  in  motion. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

Blight. 

I  WILL  now  give  final  and  conclusive  evidence  in  favor  of 
the  internal  theory  of  blight,  from  an  experience  with 
that  disease  in  my  well  known  pear  orchard  at  Hitch- 
cock, in  1894.  Up  to  that  spring,  not  a  case  of  blight  had 
ever  been  known  in  the  coast  country  of  Texas,  and  as  this 
orchard  had  borne  heavy  crops  for  five  years  none  was 
expected.  It  contained  1,250  Le  Conte  and  250  Kieffer, 
standing  on  thirteen  acres  of  ground,  500  eight,  500  nine  and 
500  ten  years  old,  and  while  all  had  been  heavily  fertilized 
every  year,  the  500  oldest  received  per  acre  one  ton  of  cotton- 
seed meal,  and  500  pounds  of  the  hull  ashes,  containing  30 
per  cent,  potash  and  8  per  cent,  phosphoric  acid,  annually 
for  five  years.  The  trees  bloomed  like  a  snow  bank  in  the 
spring  of  1893,  and  set  an  enormous  crop.  I  knew  that  the 
pears  should  be  thinned,  but  having  had  heavy  crops  of  fine 
fruit  before  without  it,  concluded  to  break  all  records  and  let 
them  alone.  No  cotton-seed  meal  was  applied  that  or  the 
preceding  year,  but  a  double  quantity  of  the  hull  ashes. 

The  ground  had  been  in  grass  and  mowed  several  times 
for  two  years,  but  knowing  that  the  trees  had  big  work  ahead, 
ignorantly  thinking  to  help  them,  the  whole  orchard  was 
lightly  plowed  in  March  and  kept  absolutely  clean  until  July. 
This  was  an  easy  task,  for  after  May  no  more  rain  fell  for 
nearly  three  months.  It  may  well  be  imagined  what  a 
strain  this  put  upon  the  trees,  but,  ever  hoping  rain  would 
come,  they  were  let  alone.  The  250  oldest  Le  Conte  were 
ten  years  of  age,  and  the  heavy  fertilizing  had  produced  a 
growth  that  was  phenomenal.  Many  of  them  measured  about 
fourteen  inches  in  diameter  one  foot  above  ground,  were 
thirty  to  thirty-four  feet  high,  the  limbs  lapping  across  twenty- 
five-feet  rows,  and  a  single  tree  gave  twenty-seven  5o-pound 

(131) 


132 


THE     NEW     HORTICUL'JURE. 


boxes  of  pears.  The  eight  and  nine-year  trees  had  received 
less  than  a  third  as  much  fertilizer,  and  were  just  as  small  in 
proportion,  but  still  fine  trees.  The  total  yield  was  over  nine 
thousand  bushels  actually  shipped,  and  good  judges  estimated 
that  fully  two  thousand  bushels  were  knocked  down  and 
bruised  in  gathering.  These  facts  will  be  testified  to  by  J.  C. 
Glover,  station  agent  at  Hitchcock,  who  shipped  the  fruit. 

The  summer  continued  dry,  with  light  showers,  until 
October,  when  good  rains  fell,  and  in  November,  being  in 
the  nursery  business  at  that  time,  I  set  twenty  men  to  work, 
and  by  the  first  day  of  January  had  largely  over  one  million 
cuttings  in  the  ground,  all  from  those  trees,  and  had  cut  out 
heavily  besides,  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  such  a  crop  next 
year.  The  fall  and  winter  were  very  mild,  and  having  rested 
so  completely  all  through  the  summer,  by  the  iyth  of  Janu- 
ary a  few  stray  blossoms  were  showing,  and  shoots  every- 
where were  pushing  from  the  cut  ends  of  the  canes  and  limbs, 
a  very  unusual  thing.  On  that  day  the  thermometer  fell  to 
eighteen  degrees,  completely  checking  all  growth.  About 
the  first  of  March,  instead  of  leafing  out  and  blooming  as 
usual,  the  trees  were  perfectly  dormant,  and  remained  so 
until  April. 

In  the  meantime,  having  determined  to  experiment  most 
thoroughly  with  Bordeaux  mixture  for  prevention  of  what  is 
known  here  as  " bitter  rot,"  which  attacks  Kieffer  pears,  more 
or  less,  every  year  while  ripening,  I  selected  three  Kieffer 
and  also  three  Le  Conte  adjoining,  and  before  a  bud  opened 
sprayed  them  well.  This  was  repeated  at  short  intervals  the 
whole  season,  and  especially  after  rains,  though  the  spray 
adhered  well  even  then.  In  fact,  those  six  trees  were  literally 
blue-washed  from  spring  until  fall.  Though  suspecting 
nothing,  having  had  absolutely  no  experience  with  blight,  I 
noticed  the  peculiarity  about  the  failure  of  the  blossoms  to 
drop  promptly,  but  thought  nothing  of  it,  until  immediately 
after  a  heavy  rain  in  May,  followed  by  calm,  hot  weather, 
when  in  a  few  days  everywhere  the  fruit  spurs  began  to 
blacken  and  the  tender  tips  of  the  shoots  to  droop.  In  a  few 
weeks  the  whole  orchard  showed  more  or  less  signs  of  blight, 


BLIGHT.  133 

not  a  single  tree  escaping,  though  on  many  the  evidence  was 
light,  and  confined  to  the  fruit  spurs  alone.  In  spite  of  it  all, 
however,  they  bore  a  moderate  crop,  and  not  a  tree  died. 
This  was  due  entirely  to  the  fact  that  the  natural  water  level 
here  is  only  from  four  to  five  feet  below  the  surface,  and 
consequently  the  sap  kept  in  motion  more  during  the  pre- 
ceding drouthy  summer  than  if  the  water  had  been  twenty 
or  more  feet  below. 

This  explains  clearly  why  blight  has  never  prevailed  be- 
fore here,  as  it  has  not  in  California,  where  irrigation  does 
the  same  for  their  trees  in  summer.  Four  hundred  six-year- 
old  Garber  pear  trees  alongside  of  this  orchard  showed  no 
signs  of  the  disease,  nor  did  another  Le  Conte  orchard  of 
one  thousand  trees,  six  years  old,  which  I  owned,  about  six 
hundred  yards  distant,  having  been  neither  pruned  nor 
plowed.  Moreover,  two  trees  the  same  age,  and  set  when  my 
oldest  were,  which  I  gave  to  a  neighbor  who  helped  me  plant, 
both  having  borne  heavy  crops,  but  neither  pruned  or  plowed, 
also  escaped  entirely.  The  six  sprayed  trees  blighted  quite 
as  badly  as  any,  and  the  Kieffer  pears  showed  equal  signs  of 
rot.  Now,  then,  on  the  external  theory,  why  did  those  six 
trees  blight,  though  completely  covered  with  the  most  effec- 
tive known  germicide  the  whole  season,  and,  as  the  bacteria 
could  not  have  come  from  the  gulf,  how  did  it  happen  that  in 
their  journey  from  the  blighting  districts  to  the  north  of  us, 
they  passed  over  a  great  number  of  pear  trees  fourteen  miles 
above  me  at  Alvin  and  other  points,  without  attacking  a  single 
tree  ?  There  is  but  one  intelligent  explanation.  No  other 
trees  bore  as  heavily  as  mine  the  year  before,  nor  did  any 
other  man  commence  to  prune  as  early  as  I  did,  or  do  it  as 
severely.  The  preceding  drouth  and  heavy  crop,  with  early 
and  severe  pruning,  aided  by  the  freeze  of  January  17,  pro- 
duced the  conditions  in  my  trees  favorable  to  a  greatly  in- 
creased multiplication  of  the  germs  already  in  the  trees,  and 
the  result  was  what  is  known  as  blight.  And  in  passing,  I 
will  say  here  that  thousands  of  dollars  have  been  wasted  in 
useless  going  over  and  cutting  out  the  affected  shoots  as  they 
appear.  I  tried  it  most  thoroughly  on  a  few  trees,  and  found 


134  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

by  fall  that  there  was  no  difference  at  all  in  the  actual  amount 
of  pruning  done,  or  in  the  appearance  of  the  trees  alongside 
that  received  but  one  pruning  the  next  winter,  another  evi- 
dence that  the  disease  is  internal  and  beyond  the  control  of 
the  knife. 

This  theory,  also,  accounts  fully  for  the  well  known  fact 
that  blight  does  not  prevail  every  season,  because  the  proper 
conditions  of  moisture,  or  rather,  lack  of  it,  and  temperature, 
are  not  forthcoming,  and  without  these,  blight  is  just  as  im- 
possible as  it  is  to  make  dough  "rise"  in  an  icebox.  But  on 
the  external  hypothesis,  where  in  these  non-blighting  seasons 
do  the  bacteria  go  ?  Having  now  given  a  reasonable  explan- 
ation of  all  the  phenomena  of  blight,  it  only  remains  for 
those  intending  to  plant  pear  or  apple  trees  hereafter  to  fol- 
low nature,  in  order  to  grow  them  just  as  free  from  blight  as 
her  old  seedlings  are,  in  fact,  even  more  so,  for  a  close  root- 
pruned  tree  will  drive  its  several  tap-roots  much  deeper  into 
the  moist  subsoil  than  any  seedling  will.  Plow  shallow  after- 
wards for  a  few  years,  giving  liberal  supplies  of  food  on  poor 
ground,  and  then  let  the  grass  grow,  keeping  it  well  mowed 
through  the  growing  season.  While  such  trees,  if  not  fertil- 
ized or  cultivated  before  growth  starts,  will  stand  light  winter 
pruning  while  young,  perhaps,  everywhere,  and  heavy  prun- 
ing here,  still  after  bearing  a  knife  should  never  be  applied 
until  the  leaves  are  out.  A  tree  can  be  literally  cut  to  pieces 
after  that,  and  while  active  growth  continues,  with  perfect 
impunity.  I  have  several  times  cut  both  peach  and  pear  to 
the  ground,  and  they  sprang  up  with  increased  vigor,  and 
everybody  knows  that  the  grape  is  best  grafted  at  that  time. 
And,  by  the  way,  I  am  satisfied,  both  from  experience  and  ob- 
servation, that  fall  and  early  winter  plowing  and  pruning  of 
grape  vines  that  have  been  planted  with  roots  spread  out  lat- 
erally are  the  potent,  probably  the  sole,  causes  of  subsequent 
rot  in  the  fruit.  The  old  root-pruned  Herbemont  at  Hitch- 
cock, before  mentioned,  that  bears  annually  such  enormous 
crops,  free  from  all  disease,  is  strong  evidence  of  this.  No 
tree  or  plant  will  become  so  completely  surface-rooted  from 
long  roots  as  the  vine,  and  none  penetrate  more  deeply  from 


BLIGHT.  135 

close  root  and  top-pruning.  While  I  have  often  pruned 
single  vines  after  the  buds  were  swollen,  and  once  when  break- 
ing, and  had  the  sap  to  flow  freely  from  the  cuts  for  several 
days,  I  never  saw  the  slightest  damage  from  it.  Perhaps  this 
very  flow  may  be  a  relief  to  the  vine,  the  sap  of  which  seems 
to  move  in  spring  with  more  intense  activity  than  that  of  any 
other  plant.  Perhaps  thus  pent  up  by  the  dry  surfaces  from 
winter  pruning  the  vines  may  become  gorged  or  congested, 
thereby  furnishing  the  proper  conditions  for  subsequent  rot  in 
the  fruit,  especially  if  a  late  freeze  has  occurred. 

Here  is  a  wide  field  for  experiment,  especially  with  close 
root-pruned  vines.  If  pruning  can  be  delayed,  as  I  am  sure 
it  can,  as  well  with  vines  as  trees,  until  growth  actually  starts 
in  spring,  it  is  plain  that  a  crop  of  fruit  will  never  be  lost,  as 
the  terminal  buds  start  first,  while  those  that  are  to  furnish 
the  fruit  are  more  backward  and  no  risk  is  ever  run  of  knock- 
ing off  the  shoots  in  pruning,  or,  being  killed  by  frost.  How- 
ever this  may  be  with  the  grape,  it  will  readily  be  seen  that 
by  deferring  pruning  of  fruit  trees  until  the  fruit  has  set,  in 
fact,  become  well  developed,  we  do  away  almost  entirely  with 
all  necessity  for  thinning.  By  removing  parts  of  all  the  bear- 
ing shoots  and  spurs  the  crop  can  be  reduced  as  desired,  re- 
sulting in  a  marked  and  surprising  increase  of  development 
in  the  remaining  fruit  in  a  few  days.  This  I  have  proved  time 
and  again. 

And  now,  having  shown  the  causes  of  blight  and  the  meth- 
ods for  its  absolute  prevention  in  all  pear  orchards  planted 
hereafter,  provided  these  methods  be  adopted,  the  question 
naturally  arises,  What  is  to  be  done  to  prevent  blight  in 
orchards  already  surface-rooted  from  planting  long-rooted 
trees  ?  The  answer  is  plain.  Put  them  down  at  once  and  for 
all  time  to  grass,  to  preserve  every  root  for  an  emergency  of 
severe  drouth.  Often  light  summer  showers  will  stimulate 
growth  in  such  trees  where  a  dry  bed  of  three  or  four  inches 
of  loose  soil  would  not  be  wet  through.  Keep  the  grass 
closely  mowed  the  whole  season,  and  top-dress  annually  with 
free,  applications  of  some  complete  fertilizer  or  barnyard 
manure,  to  obtain  a  healthy  growth  until  the  trees  begin  to 


336  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

bear.  After  that  apply  potash  freely,  also,  to  give  health  to 
the  trees,  as  well  as  color  and  quality  to  the  fruit.  And  here 
•come  into  play  the  surface-roots  of  trees,  between  which  and 
the  size  as  well  as  quality  of  the  fruit  there  is  a  most  intimate 
relation.  I  am  confident  that  the  well  known  deficiency  of 
quality  in  nearly  all  California  fruit  is  due  entirely  to  the  fact 
that,  under  their  system  of  cultivation,  no  surface  roots  are 
ever  allowed  to  form.  In  the  east  it  is  well  known  that  dry 
seasons  make  good  shipping,  high-flavored  fruit,  and  yet 
there,  where  they  have  perfection  in  climate  and  water  under 
control,  we  find  poor  quality.  Their  method  is  to  keep  the 
plow  and  cultivator  going  practically  the  whole  growing  sea- 
son, compelling  the  trees  to  form  what  may  be  called  surface 
roots  six  inches  below  the  ground.  This  is  entirely  artificial 
and  contrary  to  nature,  for  while  all  young  trees  root  primarily 
as  deep  as  they  can,  a  bearing  tree  has  sense  enough  to  know 
that  its  cookshop  is  on  the  surface,  where  air,  heat  and  rain 
prepare  its  food,  and  having  something  to  do  besides  grow,  it 
avails  itself  of  every  means  to  obtain  that  food.  If  allowed, 
it  quickly  fills  the  whole  surface  with  its  hungry  little  feeders. 
Cut  them  as  often  as  you  will,  if  given  the  slightest  chance 
back  they  come  again.  There  is  where  the  value  of  a  firm, 
closely  mowed  surface  comes  in.  The  sod  protects  these 
tender  rootlets  from  the  summer  heat  and  cold  of  winter,  and 
yet  if  kept  mowed,  being  allowed  no  evaporating  surface, 
takes  but  little  food  and  moisture  from  them,  nor  will  it  hold 
•surplus  water  after  excessive  rains,  like  loose  soil,  to  scald 
.and  drown  them  out. 

And  here  I  would  call  particular  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  sod  is  not  really  the  compact  ground  it  appears  to  be,  as 
is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  after  heavy  rains  the  water  is 
much  more  rapidly  absorbed  by  grass  land  than  clean  com- 
pacted ground.  The  pores,  so  to  speak,  of  such  are  run 
together  and  somewhat  closed,  but  the  grass  roots  keep  the 
soil  lighter,  and  by  their  decay  from  time  to  time  afford 
minute  natural  avenues  of  absorption,  which  allow  the  water 
to  find  its  way  into  and  through  the  soil. 

Adopt,  then,  the  lawn  system  for  a  pear  tree  now  grow- 


BLIGHT.  137 

ing,  and  annual  fertilizing  after  growth  starts,  never  putting 
a  knife  to  them  until  after  the  leaves  are  out  in  spring.  If 
water  can  be  had  in  addition,  that  ought  to  furnish  absolute 
immunity  from  blight,  for  it  is  simply  a  question  of  healthy, 
uniform,  continuous  motion  of  the  sap  during  the  preceding 
growing  season.  The  sap  must  not  be  allowed  to  thicken 
prematurely  and  go  to  rest.  Of  course,  every  one  knows 
that  it  does  not  rise  or  fall,  as  we  commonly  express  it,  but 
keeps  in  motion  for  a  stated  period  and  then  rests.  Where 
water  cannot  be  applied  freely  in  severe  spring  or  early  sum- 
mer drouth,  the  next  best  thing  for  such  trees  is  to  remove  a 
large  part  of  the  fruit  and  prune  heavily.  This  will  stimulate 
a  movement  of  the  sap.  The  universal  exemption  of  old  seed- 
ling pear  trees  everywhere,  and,  with  the  exception  given, 
the  general  exemption  of  this  whole  coast  country,  where  the 
water  is  at  no  time  lower  than  four  or  five  feet  from  the  sur- 
face, proves  that  a  continuous  movement  of  the  sap  in  sum- 
mer has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  absence  of  blight  the 
following  season.  Whether  clean  culture  or  sod  be  adopted, 
pear  trees  should  not  go  completely  to  rest  during  the  natural 
growing  period. 

And  now,  in  closing  the  discussion  of  this  important  sub- 
ject, for  a  clearer  understanding  of  it  and  the  relation  of  the 
external  and  internal  origin  theory  to  the  facts  in  the  case,  I 
will  recapitulate  and  give  a  condensed  statement  of  the  most 
important  of  them,  so  that  my  readers  can  clearly  see  that 
my  internal  theory  perfectly  covers  and  explains,  while  the 
external  theory  of  attack  is  at  variance  with  them  all. 

1.  Blight  attacks  isolated  trees,  miles  away  from  all  other 
pear  trees.      I  saw  a  large  bearing  Le  Conte  away  up  in  the 
mountains,    near    Eureka  Springs,  Ark.,  thus    situated,  with 
three  large  dead,  blighted  limbs  in  the  center,  from  an  attack 
the    year   before,  but    from    indifference   on   the   part   of    the 
owner,  never  cut  out.       Is  the  whole  air  filled  with  blight? 

2.  Though  all   authorities  affirm  that  such  dead  wood  is 
the  nidus  or  harbor  for  the  bacteria,  there  those  three  limbs 
stood,  right  among  the  green  leaves,  and  not  a  sign  of  blight 
that   season. 


138  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

3.  Weakly  growing  trees  escape,  while  the  vigorous  and 
strong  are  often  attacked  and  killed  alongside.      This  is  con- 
trary   to    general    experience    and    all    analogy    in    resisting 
disease. 

4.  The  attacks  are  often  sporadic,  some  bearing  and  some 
young  trees  near  by  being  affected,  while  others  escape. 

5.  Trees  whose  limbs  and  leaves  were    coated    continu- 
ously with  sulphate  of  copper,  the  best    known    germicide, 
from    spring    till    fall,  blighted    just    as    badly    as    those   not 
treated. 

6.  Continued    cutting    out    has    no   preventive  effect,  nor 
does  it  cause  apparently  healthy  shoots  on  blighting  trees,  or 
those  near  by  that  are  cut  back,  to  become  diseased  at  the 
cut  ends,  where  sap  is  exposed  to  external  attack. 

7.  Blight  was   never  known  in  Galveston  county  during 
thirty  years  of  pear  culture  until  it  appeared  in  my  twelve- 
year  old  orchard  in  1894.      How  did  it  happen  that  the  bac- 
teria, when  borne  on  the  breeze  or  by  insects,  if  thus  brought 
from    the    interior   blighting    districts    of    the    state,    passed 
through  all  the  pear  orchards,  many  of  them  in  bearing,  at 
Alvin    and   Arcadia,    without    stopping,    and    settled    in    my 
orchard,  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  fur- 
thest removed  from  the  point  of  infection? 

8.  A  careful  inquiry  showed  that  the  growing  season  pre- 
ceding a  bad  blighting  one  was  always  dry  everywhere,  thus 
checking  normal  growth  and  forcing  a  long  period    of  un- 
natural  rest,  and    that    heavily    loaded    trees,  having    rested 
most  completely,  were  most  susceptible  to  premature  motion 
of  the  sap  during  warm  weather  in  the  following  winter. 

9.  A  bad   blighting  season   is  invariably  preceded    by    a 
late    winter   or   early    spring    freeze     which    is    preceded    by 
unseasonably  warm  weather. 

10.  California,  with  its  equable  winter  climate,  and  irriga- 
tion to   keep    up   continuous   motion   of  the  sap    during    the 
growing  season,  has  little  or  no  blight. 

11.  While   it   has   been   claimed  that  healthy   pear   trees 


BLIGHT.  139 

could  be  inoculated  with  blight,  facts  now  strongly  prove 
that  any  supposed  inoculation  must  have  been  simply  a  local 
irritation  that  could  not  have  resulted  in  blight.  On  the  ist 
of  June  I  steeped  blighted  leaves,  wood  and  bark  in  water, 
leaving,  them  four  days,  until  the  liquid  became  dark  red. 
This  was  inserted  freely  into  cuts  made  as  for  budding,  and 
the  young  pear  shoots  dipped  into  it.  The  experiments  were 
made  on  a  three-year-old  Bartlett,  a  five-year-old  Idaho  and 
an  eight-year-old  bearing  Le  Conte.  At  this  time,  six  weeks 
after,  there  is  not  the  slightest  sign  of  blight  on  any  of  the 
trees.  At  my  request,  Mr.  E.  W.  Kirkpatrick,  of  McKinney, 
in  North  Texas,  and  Mr.  S.  K.  Wheeler,  of  Arcadia,  in  South 
Texas,  also  vainly  attempted  to  inoculate  healthy  trees  with 
blighted  sap  and  bark,  not  a  single  case  showing  the  slightest 
effect.  This  demonstrates  absolutely  that  this  disease  is  of 
internal  origin,  and  results  only  when  trees  are  subjected  to 
the  aforementioned  conditions.  While  I  have  suggested  in 
this  chapter  a  preventive  treatment  for  trees  now  growing,  it 
may  be  of  doubtful  value.  No  surface-rooted  trees,  like  those 
in  nearly  all  pear  orchards  elsewhere,  can  keep  the  sap  in  free 
motion  during  a  severe  drouth,  especially  if  bearing  a  crop  of 
fruit.  Even  though  not  pruned  or  stimulated  out  of  season, 
much  would  depend  on  the  character  of  the  winter  and  spring. 
Having  now  shown  from  the  foregoing  incontrovertible 
facts  that  the  bacterial  disease  of  blight  is  of  internal  origin, 
and  the  result  of  certain  conditions,  the  question  naturally 
arises,  May  not  other  forms  of  bacterial  tree  diseases,  such  as 
yellows,  black-knot,  root  tumor,  etc.,  be  of  similar  origin? 
Reasoning  from  analogy,  we  would  naturally  come  to  the  same 
conclusion,  nor  will  any  other  theory  cover  the  cases.  All 
such  diseases  must  be  the  result  of  inherent  weakness  aggra- 
vated by  favoring  conditions,  and  none  will  deny  that  the  more 
vigorous  we  can  make  our  trees  the  less  liable  they  will  be  to 
attack.  On  this  principle  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  viru- 
lent root  tumor  of  the  South  can  be  entirely  cured  by  planting 
affected  trees  in  very  small  holes,  after  cutting  off  the  roots 
very  closely  and  fertilizing  them  well.  One  thousand  plum 
trees  thus  treated  four  years  ago  were  examined  recently,  and 


140  THE     NEW    HORTICULTURE. 

found  to  be  entirely  healthy,  and  my  experience  is  corrobo- 
rated by  the  following  testimony  : 

EDITOR  FRUIT-GROWERS'  JOURNAL  : 

Your  journal  has  been  very  interesting  for  the  last  few  months. 
I  will  give  you  my  experience  with  Stringfellow  root-pruning.  In  '93 
I  planted  peach  seed  in  a  corn  field  and  budded  all  that  came  up  the 
following  summer  and  fall.  In  '94  I  planted  about  125  trees  where 
peach  seeds  failed  to  grow.  I  pruned  the  roots  very  close  because 
they  were  diseased,  and  cut  down  tops  to  from  one  to  one  and  a  half 
feet.  After  two  years'  growth  the  125  trees  are  as  large  as  the  trees 
two  years  from  bud.  All  that  I  plant  in  the  future  I  will  prune  roots 
short. 

LEAVENWORTH,  IND.  CHAS.  SACKSTEDER. 

EDITOR  FARM  AND  RANCH  : 

I  planted  an  orchard  of  peach,  plum  and  almonds  fifteen  years 
ago,  and  was  with  my  boys  until  about  half  the  trees  were  set. 
Ground  is  alluvial,  with  hard  clay  subsoil.  Trees  were  two  years 
old.  Was  careful  to  have  holes  dug  large,  so  as  to  allow  of  roots 
being  all  spread  out.  The  digging  was  very  hard.  Being  called 
away,  the  boys  set  the  last  half,  and  "played  off  "  on  me.  They  dug 
small  holes,  cut  off  the  roots  and  hid  them,  and  to-day  the  best  trees 
by  far  in  the  orchard  are  the  root-pruned  ones.  Most  of  the  long- 
rooted  ones  have  died,  and  the  balance  got  the  root-rot.  I  ruined 
part  of  my  orchard  four  years  ago  by  deep  plowing  and  breaking 
the  roots. 

BURNET,  TEXAS.  J.  J.  M.  SMITH. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Growing   Trees  from   Bearing  Ones. 

WHILE  here  and  there  over  the  country  a  few  nursery- 
men recognize  the  advantage  of  propagating  their 
stock  from  bTearing  trees,  and  advertise  the  fact  in 
their  catalogues,  the  great  majority  of  propagators  and  buyers 
pay  no  attention  at  all  to  this  important  subject.  There  is 
not  the  slightest  doubt  that  a  tree  grown  either  from  a  cut- 
ting, as  the  Le  Conte  and  Kieffer  are  here,  taken  from  a  bear- 
ing tree,  or  one  propagated  by  budding  or  grafting  from  such 
bearing  tree,  will  fruit  three  or  four  years,  often  six  or  seven, 
before  one  grown  from  a  young  tree  that  has  for  a  number  of 
generations  been  grown  from  young  ones  that  have  never 
fruited.  I  drew  attention  to  this  important  point  five  years 
ago  in  our  local  papers,  and  proved  it  beyond  all  doubt,  by 
my  own  experience  and  that  of  quite  a  number  of  growers 
elsewhere.  Since  then  I  have  been  watching  and  experiment- 
ing in  this  line,  and  find  that  the  fruit-bearing  principle  is 
carried  just  as  fully  by  the  bud  as  by  the  graft  and  cutting. 
Four  years  ago  I  gave  a  friend  a  seedling  from  a  Kieffer  pear 
tree,  which  bloomed  the  third  year  and  bore  the  fourth.  The 
second  year  of  that  seedling's  life  I  took  some  buds  from  it 
and  top-budded  a  young  Garber  pear  tree  in  an  orchard  of 
three  hundred  of  that  variety  and,  just  like  the  parent  tree, 
the  growth  from  those  buds  bloomed  the  third  year,  and  bore 
fruit  the  fourth,  though  not  a  single  Garber  out  of  the  whole 
lot  showed  even  a  blossom.  Here  is  absolute  demonstration 
of  the  fact  that  even  the  bud  from  a  bearing  tree  will  carry 
the  early  fruiting  capacity  in  it.  Again,  a  year  ago  in  the 
spring,  I  took  buds  from  an  old,  bearing  orange  tree,  and  put 
them  into  nine  Trifoliata  orange  trees  only  two  years  old, 
here  in  Galveston,  and  now,  March  6th,  eight  out  of  the  nine, 
having  made  a  good  growth  last  season,  are  coming  into  full 

(MO 


142  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

bloom,  though  I  do  not  expect  them  to  set  the  fruit.  Ordi- 
narily an  orange  from  seed  or  from  a  young  non-bearing  tree 
takes  eight  or  nine  years  to  bear.  Still  another  instance 
stands  near  my  home  in  Galveston.  J.  C.  Trube  has  two 
vigorous  young  Le  Conte  pear  trees,  now  four  years  old. 
They  bore  quite  a  number  of  pears  the  second  and  third 
years,  were  full  the  fourth,  and  are  now  again  white  with  blos- 
soms. Another  friend,  C.  C.  Petitt,  told  me  recently  that 
Le  Conte  pear  trees  I  sold  him  sevei^  years  ago,  which  he 
planted  at  Dickinson,  have  bloomed  but  sparingly,  but  that 
others  I  sold  him  two  years  ago  are  white  with  blooms.  The 
first  lot  were  taken  from  my  orchard  before  a  large  part  of  it 
began  to  bear,  or  before  I  knew  anything  of  these  facts,  but 
the  last,  now  in  bloom,  were  propagated  from  the  bearing 
trees. 

But  it  is  useless  to  multiply  instances  which  have  been 
furnished  me  regarding  the  various  fruits,  all  pointing  the 
same  way.  While  a  single  remove,  or  even  a  second  one, 
from  a  bearing  tree  might  not  affect  the  time  of  bearing 
much,  trees  grown  repeatedly  and  for  years  from  young  trees 
in  nursery  rows  will  certainly  be  much  later  in  coming  into 
bearing.  This  accounts  fully  for  the  fact  that  there  are  a 
great  number  of  pear  trees  in  this  section  now  six,  seven  and 
eight  years  old  that  have  borne  little  or  no  fruit,  and  pear  as 
well  as  apple  trees  all  over  the  country  which  have  behaved 
the  same  way.  The  pear  and  apple  are  particularly  affected 
thus,  and,  being  naturally  slow  to  bear,  no  cions  or  buds 
for  propagation  should  ever  be  taken  from  young  trees  in 
nursery  rows,  or  from  other  than  healthy  trees,  that  have 
come  into  full  bearing.  It  is  a  great  injustice  to  purchasers 
to  thus  keep  them  waiting  for  fruit  years  after  the  time  when 
trees  should  bear.  Every  pear  or  apple  tree  grown  from  a 
settled  bearing  tree  will  bear  full  the  fourth  or  fifth  year  at 
farthest. 

I  will  close  this  subject  with  several  quotations,  the  first 
from  an  unnamed  correspondent  of  The  Rural  New-  Yorker, 
the  second  from  Prof.  L.  H.  Bailey,  of  Cornell,  and  the 
others  bv  the  parties  whose  names  are  signed,  all  going  to 


GROWING     TREES     FROM     BEARING     ONES.  143 

show  the  vast  importance  of  propagating  from  the  healthiest 
and  most  productive  bearing  trees,  and  never  from  trees  in 
nursery,  except  new  varieties,  bearing  wood  of  which  cannot 
be  had. 

TWENTY-TWO  years  ago  I  set  an  orchard  of  180  trees — one  hun- 
dred  Baldwin,  forty  Rhode  Island  Greening,  and  forty  Northern  Spy, 
the  three  most  profitable  apples,  as  I  thought,  to  be  set  at  that  time. 
After  the  orchard  had  been  set  'five  or  six  years,  I  concluded  to 
change  the  tops  of  the  Northern  Spy  to  Baldwin,  as  the  Northern 
Spy  did  not  do  very  well  about  here  at  that  time.  Having  a  few 
older  Baldwin  trees  which  were  bearing  fine  crops  of  fruit,  1  selected 
scions  from  them,  and  soon  had  the  tops  changed. 

The  result  was  that  these  trees  commenced  bearing  five  or  six 
years  sooner,  have  always  borne  double  the  quantity,  and  of  better 
quality,  than  the  trees  that  were  budded  to  Baldwin  at  the  nursery, 
and  set  at  the  same  time,  under  the  same  conditions.  While  all  are 
now  fine,  healthy  trees,  those  that  were  budded  to  Baldwin  at  the 
uursery  make  the  most  wood  growth,  and  the  branches  are  longer 
and  more  reedy.  I  have  also  noticed  that,  while  these  trees  seemed 
to  have  as  much  bloom,  they  would  not  perfect  more  than  half  as 
much  fruit  as  those  with  the  changed  tops.  Who  will  tell  the  reason 
of  this  ?—  The  Rural  New-  Yorker. 

IT  is  probable  that  many  trees  fail  to  bear  because  propagated 
from  unproductive  trees.  We  know  that  no  two  trees  in  any  orchard 
are  alike,  either  in  the  amount  of  fruit  which  they  bear  or  in  their 
vigor  and  habit  of  growth.  Some  are  uniformly  productive,  and  some 
are  uniformly  unproductive.  We  know,  too,  that  scions  or  buds  tend 
to  reproduce  the  character  of  the  tree  from  which  they  are  taken.  A 
gardener  would  never  think  of  taking  cuttings  from  a  rose  bush  or 
chrysanthemum  or  carnation  which  does  not  bear  flowers.  Why 
should  a  fruit-grower  take  scions  from  a  tree  which  he  knows  to  be 
unprofitable  ? 

The  indiscriminate  cutting  of  scions  is  too  clumsy  and  inexact  a 
practice  for  these  days,  when  we  are  trying  to  introduce  scientific 
methods  into  our  farming.  I  am  convinced  that  some  trees  cannot 
be  made  to  bear  by  any  amount  of  treatment.  They  are  not  the 
bearing  kind.  It  is  not  every  mare  which  will  breed  or  every  hen 
which  will  lay  a  hatfull  of  eggs. 

In  my  own  practice,  I  am  buying  the  best  nursery-grown  stock  of 
apples  (mostly  Spy),  and  am  top-grafting  them  with  scions  from  trees 
which  please  me,  and  which  I  know  to  have  been  productive  during 
many  years.  Time  will  discover  if  the  effort  is  worth  the  while,  but 
unless  all  analogies  fail  the  outcome  must  be  to  my  profit.— L.  H. 
BAILEY. 

MY  DEAR  SIR — I  have  your  letter  of  the  seventh  on  my  return 
from  the  North,  and  beg  to  say  I  have  read  with  great  interest  Mr. 
H.  M.  Stringfellow's  letter  in  the  Alvin  Sun,  which  was  enclosed  in 
your  letter. 


144  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

I  have  fought  Mr.  S.'s  battle  here  in  California.  I  know  he  is 
right.  I  have  seen  the  same  practice  which  he  narrates  applied  to 
the  olive,  and  only  six  berries  were  produced  from  an  orchard  of  over 
thirteen  hundred  trees,  after  the  most  diligent  and  careful  cultivation 
for  six  years,  while  cuttings  which  I  planted  at  the  same  time  (taken 
from  old  bearing  trees)  all  bore  fruit  the  third  year.  One  tree  bore 
eleven  gallons  the  fourth  year,  and  I  have  had  trees  bear  twenty-three 
gallons  the  fifth  year  and  a  barrel  the  sixth  year.  The  difference  be- 
tween an  orchard  of  thirteen  hundred  trees  bearing  six  olives  the 
sixth  year  and  a  single  tree  of  the  same  age  bearing  a  barrel,  thirty-one 
gallons,  of  fruit,  is  worth  noticing,  and  demands  investigation.  And 
yet,  right  here  in  Southern  California,  with  all  these  facts  before 
them,  there  are  nurserymen  who  still  persist  in  planting  cuttings  from 
trees  which  are  now  forty  or  fifty  years  old,  which  trees  never  pro- 
duced a  hatfull  of  olives,  which  trees  should  bear  one  hundred  gal- 
lons at  a  crop. 

I  never  plant  a  cutting  from  any  tree  which  has  not  produced 
fruit,  and  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  take  cuttings  from  the  oldest  bear- 
ing tree  in  the  country.  I  am  ready  to  guarantee  every  tree  I  sell  to 
bear  fruit  if  planted  here.  I  will  guarantee  75  per  cent,  to  bear  the 
third  year  and  every  tree  to  bear  the  fourth  year. 

Very  truly, 

FRANK  A.  KIMBALL. 

IT  OFTEN  happens  that  when  apple  trees  or  an  apple  orchard  has 
arrived  at  bearing  age,  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  (according  to  va- 
riety) (?),  while  making  a  good  growth  of  wood  every  year,  they  may 
fail  to  form  fruit  buds  and  bear  fruit.  In  many  instances  trees  have 
reached  the  age  of  twenty  years  or  more,  healthy,  vigorous  trees, 
that  have  not  produced  fruit  enough  to  pay  for  the  first  cost  of  tree 
and  transportation.  Now  there  are  a  good  many  who  would  be  glad 
to  know  if  there  are  any  means  by  which  such  trees  can  be  made  to 
bear.  It  is  a  well  known  law  of  vegetation  that  a  rapid-growing  tree 
or  plant  is  inclined  to  make  wood  buds  rather  than  fruit  buds,  and 
that  sap  has  a  strong  tendency  to  flow  into  terminal  buds  rather  than 
into  side  buds.  It  is  a  prevailing  opinion  of  experienced  horticultur- 
ists that  any  check  of  growth  has  the  effect  to  promote  the  growth  of 
fruit  buds — reproductive  organs.  I  have  known  instances  where 
flourishing  young  orchards,  that  had  always  been  under  cultivation, 
and  formed  no  fruit  buds  but  annually  a  rank  growth  of  wood,  have 
been  seeded  down  to  grass,  and  fruitfulness  followed  in  two  or  three 
years.  The  owners  believed  that  the  sod  checked  the  too  rampant 
growth  of  wood  and  induced  the  growth  of  fruit  buds.  Possibly 
they  were  right.  Again,  pear  growers  are  well  aware  that,  to  make 
rapid  growing  pear  trees  fruitful,  it  is  necessary  to  shorten-in  every 
year's  growth  to  promote  the  formation  of  fruit  buds.  This  fact  is 
so  well  known  as  to  be  unquestioned  by  well  informed  pear  growers. 
Why  may  not  the  same  methods  be  applied  to  apple  trees  ?  I  know 
that  it  would  be  a  tedious  operation  to  go  all  over  the  top  of  a  large 
apple  tree  and  shorten-in  the  previous  year's  growth,  but,  if  it  would 
cause  a  barren  tree  to  become  fruitful,  it  would  be  labor  well  ex- 


GROWING     TREES     FROM     BEARING     ONES.  145 

pended.  I  am  well  aware  that  many  other  causes  have  conspired,  of 
late  years,  to  prevent  apple  trees  with  an  abundance  of  fruit  buds 
from  producing  and  maturing  fruits — such  as  cold ;  protracted  rains 
when  in  blossom,  preventing  pollenation  ;  severe  frosts  while  in  bloom 
or  afterwards ;  fungus  on  young  fruit,  or  on  fruit  steins  or  on  the 
leaves  ;  but,  when  no  bloom  appears  and  no  fruit  buds  are  found,  it  is 
in  vain  that  we  look  for  fruit.  The  shortening-in  process  would  not 
be  necessary  every  year.  If  practical  once  or  twice,  it  mi»ht  throw 
the  trees  into  fruitfulness,  and  then  the  check  upon  growth  caused  by 
bearing  fruit  might  promote  the  formation  of  fruit  buds. — P.  C. 
REYNOLDS,  in  Green's  Fruit- Grower. 

The  unfruitfulness  Mr.  Reynolds  here  alludes  to  is  plainly 
the  result  of  propagating  from  non-bearing  or  unproductive 
trees.  Instead  of  the  " many  other  causes"  why  trees  with 
an  abundance  of  fruit  buds  fail  to  bear,  if  he  had  laid  the 
trouble  to  the  annual  destruction  of  their  surface  roots  by 
the  plow  and  cultivator,  upon  which  roots  all  trees  depend 
for  the  setting  of  their  fruit,  he  would  have  hit  the  nail  on  the 
head.  Every  fruit-grower  can  find  evidence  of  this  around 
him,  and  the  experience  of  others  elsewhere  in  this  book  con- 
firms it.  While  it  is  a  fact  that  evaporation  is  less  from  a 
cultivated  surface  than  one  in  a  close-mowed  sod,  a  fair  test 
with  a  seedling  or  a  root-pruned  tree  will  demonstrate  in 
every  case  that  this  loss  of  moisture  is  far  over-balanced  by 
the  service  rendered  the  tree  by  its  unbroken  surface  roots. 
The  superiority  of  all  forest,  shade  and  nut  trees,  as  well  as 
seedling  fruit  trees,  in  uncultivated  ground  proves  this.  But 
here  let  me  again  impress  upon  my  readers  that  in  all  I  have 
to  say  about  non-cultivation  and  close  mowing  around  fruit 
trees,  reference  is  made  solely  to  those  grown  from  seed  where 
they  stand,  or  to  close  root-pruned  ones.  While  it  will  cause 
surface-rooted  trees  to  frequently  shed  their  fruit,  and  will 
ultimately  shorten  their  lives,  cultivation  for  them  is  a  neces- 
sary evil. 


10— HORT. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

Propagation  by  Cuttings. 

WHILE  a  great  variety  of  other  trees  and  plants  grow 
well  from  cuttings  at  the  North,  here,  in  South 
Texas,  we  find  the  conditions  so  favorable  that  the 
Le  Conte,  Garber  and  Kieffer  pears  also  grow  more  or  less 
freely  from  cuttings.  But  having  from  the  beginning  kept 
up  my  habit  of  experimenting,  some  years  ago,  after  losing 
most  of  our  cutting  crops  several  times,  either  from  too  much 
or  too  little  rain  in  the  winter,  I  concluded  to  try  early  fall 
planting.  So,  beginning  about  the  first  of  August,  I  stripped 
the  leaves  from  the  young  pear  canes  as  soon  as  cut  off,  and 
every  Saturday  planted  one  hundred  cuttings.  I  kept  this  up 
until  December,  and  found,  to  my  surprise,  that  of  those  set 
between  the  i5th  of  September  and  the  I5th  of  October,  if 
the  ground  was  reasonably  moist,  or  if  well  watered,  fully  90 
per  cent,  grew,  and  for  the  last  three  years  I  practised  this 
method  with  perfect  success.  I  have  had  them  to  grow  six 
inches  before  cold  weather,  if  the  fall  was  seasonable.  The 
philosophy  of  it  is,  that  at  that  time  the  wood  is  mature  and 
the  ground  still  warm,  while  the  gradually  decreasing  tem- 
perature gives  a  cool  atmosphere  or  head.  In  fact,  in  early 
fall  the  earth  is  a  natural  hotbed,  and  grape  cuttings,  as  well 
as  pear  and  many  other  trees,  will  also  root  well.  I  see  no 
reason  why  the  same  conditions  should  not  prevail  about  the 
first  of  August  at  the  North. 

I  will  now  give  a  method  for  the  rapid  making  of  cuttings 
and  scions,  which  will  prove  very  valuable  to  nurserymen. 
Figure  i  in  the  cut  (page  147),  represents  the  end  of  the 
handle  of  the  machine,  with  a  thin,  sharp  cutting  blade  at  7, 
all  made  in  one  piece  and  with  the  end  of  the  blade  fastened 
by  a  bolt,  on  which  it  works,  to  a  standard  (3),  which  is  made 
of  ^6 -inch  thick  and  2-inch  wide  sheet  iron.  Figure  2  repre- 

(146) 


PROPAGATION     BY     CUTTINGS.  147 

sents  a  similar  but  double  standard,  bolted  together  at  top 
and  bottom,  just  wide  enough  apart  to  allow  the  handle  of 
the  knife  to  work  easily  between.  Figure  4  represents  a 
piece  of  2X  lo-inch  plank, with  a  similar  piece  on  the  opposite 
side,  between  which  the  double  standard  (2)  is  bolted.  These 
two  sides  meet  closely  beneath  the  knife  blade,  so  as  to  fur- 
nish a  support  for  it  when  pressed  through  the  bundle  of  cut- 
tings, which  are  to  be  inserted  at  9,  in  the  curve.  There  is 
an  iron  stop  at  8,  between  the  double  standards,  just  low 
enough  to  allow  the  blade  to  enter  the  crack  at  9  about 
In  order  to  regulate  the  length  of  cuttings,  a  piece 


CUTTING    MACHINE. 


of  i  x  i4>plank  one  foot  long  must  be  nailed  on  edge  against 
and  to  the  base  along  at  10  and  opposite  the  knife,  against 
which  the  feeder  pushes  the  ends  of  the  cutting  wood. 
Eight  inches  is  long  enough  for  any  cutting.  Have  the  blade 
made  of  good  steel,  thin  and  smooth,  and  keep  it  sharp.  To 
operate  to  the  best  advantage,  four  men  are  required,  though 
two  can  work  it.  But,  with  one  man  on  a  stool  at  the  handle, 
another  to  assort  the  wood,  so  as  to  have  the  buds  all  the 
same  way  and  ends  together,  a  third  to  receive  and  feed,  and 
a  fourth  to  hold  the  ends  about  to  be  cut,  and  when  cut  lay 
carefully  in  flat  baskets  or  boxes  with  hoop  handles,  this 
machine  will  make  more  cuttings  in  a  day  than  twenty  men, 
and  of  as  good  quality.  Any  slight  bruising  of  the  edges  or 
sides  of  the  cuttings  does  no  damage,  as  anyone  can  prove 
by  making  a  small  lot  with  a  sharp  hatchet ;  they  will 


148  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

grow  just  as  readily  as  if  made  with  the  sharpest  knife.  I 
have  used,  for  years,  a  pair  of  No.  4  sliding  pruning  shears  for 
cuttings,  simply  bolting  the  handle  with  the  curved  jaw  down 
flat  on  the  2-inch  plank  ;  but  last  year,  on  retiring  from  busi- 
ness, I  told  my  friend,  F.  W.  Malley,  who  was  just  starting, 
of  this  method,  and  suggested  that  he  rig  up  something 
larger,  and  the  machine  here  represented  is  the  result  of  his 
ingenuity.  There  is  no  patent  on  it,  and  we  present  it  to  all 
who  choose  to  make  and  use  it. 

In  planting,  always  set  cuttings  perpendicular,  and  not 
slanting,  as  is  often  directed,  under  a  mistaken  idea  that  they 
root  better  thus.  There  is  no  difference  in  the  rooting,  but  a 
slanting  cutting  makes  a  crooked  and  unsalable  tree.  All 
cuttings  should  also  be  made  with  a  square  cross  cut,  as  they 
strike  better  that  way,  and  make  a  much  more  evenly-bal- 
anced system  of  roots,  than  from  a  sloping  cut.  A  large 
pile  of  cutting  wood  should  be  collected  before  going  to 
work,  and  it  will  greatly  facilitate  matters  if,  in  picking  or 
gathering  it  up  in  the  orchard,  all  the  buds  or  ends  are  kept 
one  way. 

While  on  the  subject  of  bruising  roots  or  ends  of  cuttings, 
to  prove  that  all  the  injunctions  about  making  smooth  cuts  of 
either  is  humbug,  one  only  has  to  dig  a  tree  with  the  spade 
and  heel  it  in  a  few  weeks,  to  see  that  roots  strike  from  the 
rough  cut  ends  just  as  freely  as  if  made  with  a  sharp  knife. 
The  main  point  in  growing  cuttings  in  the  early  fall  is  to 
plant  a  little  deeper  than  in  winter  or  spring.  Eight  inches 
is  about  the  best  length  of  cuttings,  and  six  inches  put  under 
the  ground  for  early  fall  planting,  but  in  winter  and  spring 
thousands  of  cuttings  are  annually  lost  from  being  planted 
too  deep.  It  is  always  best  to  plant  on  a  good  ridge  every- 
where in  winter,  for  the  ground  is  dryer  and  warms  up  more 
quickly,  and  three  or  four  inches  is  deep  enough,  and,  if  the 
ground  remains  very  wet,  a  cutting  inserted  only  two  inches 
will  nearly  always  grow.  If  the  ground  is  a  little  dry  it  is  a 
good  plan  to  pass  over  and  press  firmly,  next  to  the  rows, 
with  the  foot.  I  did  it  always,  unless  the  soil  was  too  wet. 

Now,  in  view  of  what  is  said  elsewhere  on   pruning  pear 


PROPAGATION  BY  CUTTINGS.  149 

trees,  of  course  judgment  must  be  used  in  the  quantity  of 
pruning  done  to  each  tree.  While  no  amount  here  in  Sep- 
tember or  early  in  October  will  do  any  harm  to  bearing  trees, 
it  will  be  safer  to  let  them  alone  after  that  time,  though  it 
is  hard  to  hurt  young  pear  trees  in  this  section  with  pruning 
at  any  time,  as  the  water  is  so  near  the  surface,  and  the  dow 
of  sap  is  never  entirely  suspended  in  summer.  I  have  pruned 
severely  at  all  times,  and  never  saw  any  damage  except  after 
that  heavy  crop,  dry  summer  and  severe  early  winter  prun- 
ing, in  '93.  At  the  North,  however,  where  blight  is  so  much 
more  prevalent,  I  would  never  prune  a  pear  or  apple  tree 
until  the  leaves  were  all  out  in  spring.  The  Cape  Jessamine 
is  also  largely  grown  here  from  cuttings,  and  under  proper 
conditions  the  cuttings  root  with  scarcely  a  failure.  June  is 
the  best  month  to  plant,  or  just  after  the  spring  bloom  is 
gone.  Make  the  cuttings  about  eight  inches  long,  leaving 
one  or  two  leaves  on  the  upper  end  of  each.  Bury  in  shal- 
low trenches,  running  east  and  west,  and  incline  a  12-inch 
plank  over  the  trench,  supported  on  slanting  stubs  driven 
into  the  ground.  This  will  keep  the  evening  sun  ofi  and 
should  be  left  until  fall,  when  every  one  will  be  rooted  il  :he 
ground  has  been  kept  moist  all  the  time.  They  can  be  ouned 
quite  thickly  and  still  root  well,  after  which  set  in  nursery 
rows,  removing  nearly  all  the  root,  and  they  will  make  tine 
bushes  the  next  season.  Roses  can  also  be  rooted  very 
readily  the  same  way,  and  doubtless  many  other  evergreen 
plants.  The  Cape  Jessamine  will  also  root  with  great  cer- 
tainty if  the  leaves  are  all  stripped  off  and  the  cuttings  made 
about  six  inches  long,  and  planted  the  last  of  February  or 
in  March. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Winter   Budding. 

WHILE  summer  budding  is  one  of  the  most  common 
forms  of  tree  propagation,  a  friend  of  mine,  a  most 
progressive  horticulturist,  James  Hancock,  of  Bee- 
ville,  Texas,  has  been  for  some  time  practicing  a  different 
method  with  perfect  success  in  winter  and  early  spring,  before 
the  sap  begins  to  move  or  the  bark  will  separate  from  the 
wood.  I  also  tried  this  method  in  February  and  later  with 
perfect  success.  He  advises  cutting  off  a  little  of  the  wood 
with  bark  from  the  stock,  though  I  tried  some  with  bark  alone 
and  all  took.  The  accompanying  cut  (see  next  page)  will  illus- 
trate how  it  is  done.  Insert  the  knife  into  the  limb  or  stock, 
just  as  if  a  bud  was  to  be  cut  and  draw  it  downward  an  inch  or 
less,  pressing  the  cut  bark  back  a  little  to  keep  it  open.  (See 
Fig.  2,  on  limb.)  The  bud  is  then  slipped  down  next  to  the 
cut  surface  to  the  bottom.  It  is  best  to  make  the  bud  fully  as 
long  or  a  little  longer  than  the  cut  on  the  limb,  and  let  the  up- 
per end  lap  a  little.  The  flap  is  then  pressed  back,  and  tied 
firmly,  as  in  budding,  completely  covering  the  bud  itself.  Of 
course,  the  leaf  stalk  must  be  cut  off  close,  just  at  the  bud,  so 
the  flap  will  fit  tight.  Buds  can  be  put  in  thus  all  winter,  and 
especially  in  early  spring,  and  not  one  in  a  hundred  will  fail. 
This  method  is  especially  valuable  for  budding  large  trees  and 
limbs,  instead  of  top-grafting,  which  is  far  more  work,  and 
less  certain  to  succeed.  An  orchard  can  be  cut  back  and  very 
quickly  changed  into  another  variety  of  fruit  at  any  point 
above  the  ground  desired,  provided  the  bark  on  the  limbs  is 
smooth  enough  to  bud. 

The  past  spring,  just  before  the  leaves  pushed,  but  when 
the  buds  were  swollen,  I  saw  five  hundred  four-year-old 
peach  trees  thus  treated  by  top-budding  without  a  single  fail- 
ure. Five  and  six  buds  were  quickly  put  into  the  main  limbs 

(150) 


WINTER     BUDDING. 


WINTER  BUDDING. 


152 


THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 


on  each  tree,  which  were  at  once  cut  back  to  within  a  foot  of 
the  buds.  These  buds  have  now  (May  5)  made  shoots  three 
feet  long.  .  Whether  this  is  absolutely  necessary  to  arrest  the 
movement  of  the  sap,  Mr.  Hancock  has  never  tested  by  leav- 
ing the  limb  entire,  but  as  there  is  practically  no  movement 
in  winter  it  would  seem  not.  There  would  be  no  objection  to 
cutting  back  in  a  cold  climate,  except  dying  off  of  limbs  so 
cut  in  case  of  a  freeze  after  the  sap  began  to  move  from  such 
severe  pruning.  Of  course,  after  the  buds  have  started  well, 
the  limbs  should  be  sawed  off  with  a  sloping  cut  close  above 
the  buds,  though  the  bud  in  the  cut  was  not  so  treated. 
Enough  shoots  of  the  stock  should  be  allowed  to  grow  below 
to  keep  the  tree  healthy,  which  could  be  cut  away  later  in  the 
season  or  the  following  year.  This  method  may  be  very  valu- 
able to  the  orange  growers  of  Florida  in  the  ordinary  propa- 
gation of  trees,  as  budding  by  the  common  method  often  fails. 
It  will  also  be  exceedingly  valuable  for  turning  large  trees  of 
pecans  and  other  nuts  into  the  finer  kinds,  and  must  entirely 
supersede  all  orchard  top-grafting,  which,  from  the  liability 
of  the  scion  to  dry  out,  is  a  very  uncertain  as  well  as  trouble- 
some process,  while  this  is  quick,  easy  and  certain.  More- 
over, why  could  it  not  be  used  by  nurserymen  for  budding 
during  winter  stocks  that  could  not  be  dormant  budded  in 
the  fall  before?  Or  perhaps  after  the  bark  ceases  to  slip  in 
the  fall  the  work  could  be  continued  by  this  method  then. 
Mr.  Hancock  has  not  found  it  as  convenient  or  successful 
during  the  ordinary  budding  season  as  the  common  method, 
nor  has  he  ever  tried  it  during  the  winter  before  February 
here,  but  has  had  uniform  success.  At  the  North,  perhaps 
just  when  the  buds  begin  to  swell  would  be  an  excellent 
time,  and  for  the  next  month. 


CHAPTER   XV. 
Grafting* 

WHILE   all  the  various  forms  of  ordinary  grafting  are 
well  understood,  and    need    no    description,  there    is 
a  form   practiced   by  my    friend,  E.  W.  Kirkpatrick, 
of  McKinney,    Texas,   an  old  nurseryman  and  fruit-grower, 
that  is  so  simple  and  uniformly  successful  with  all  kinds  of 
trees  and  vines,  that   it  deserves  to  be  more  widely  known. 


SCION    AND    STOCK    COMBINED. 


As  seen  from  the  illustration,  if  the  stock  to  be  grafted  is 
growing  in  the  ground,  cut  off  the  top  as  for  saddle  grafting, 
but  with  one  of  the  sloping  cuts  about  twice  as  long  as  the 
other,  as  shown.  Then  make  an  incision  into  the  side  of  the 
scion,  which  should  be  five  or  six  inches  long,  about  one-third 

(i53) 


THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 


of  the  length  from  the  top,  and,  inserting  the  lower  end  of 
the  scion,  sharpened  as  shown,  into  the  ground,  fit  the  cut 
place  on  to  the  stock,  placing  the  long  side  of  the  cut  surface 
of  the  stock  next  to  the  scion.  Bring  the  edges  together  on 
one  side,  press  the  scion  down  firmly,  and  no  tying  will  be 
necessary,  but  bank  the  moist  earth  well  over  the  union,  and 
pack.  The  scion  then  becomes  practically  a  cutting  as  well  as 
a  graft,  and  generally  takes  root  from  the  lower  end,  as  well 
as  unites  with  the  stock.  This  method  is  equally  suited  for 
house  grafting,  if  tied  to  keep  the  stock  and  scion  together 
until  planted. 

Another  method,  particularly  well  adapted  to  the  vine,  and 
a  modification  of  cleft  grafting,  that  rarely  fails  of  success  on 
the  grape,  done  either  in  winter,  spring,  or  after  the  vine  is 
in  full  growth,  provided  the  scions  have  been  kept  dormant. 
Select  a  smooth  place  on  the  vine  near  or  just  under  the 
ground,  and  make  a  downward  sloping  cut,  one-third  or  one- 
half  through  the  stock,  according  to 
size,  as  shown  in  the  illustration.  A 
well-ripened  scion  with  one  or  two  buds 
is  then  cut  as  for  cleft  grafting,  except 
that  the  cuts,  are  made  sloping,  so  as  to 
bring  one  side  of  the  scion  to  an  edge, 
which  is  to  be  inserted  in  the  side  cut  of 
the  stock,  so  as  to  bring  the  face  or 
broad  side  of  the  scion  flush 
and  even  with  one  edge  of 
the  cut  in  the  stock.  A  few 
wraps  of  strong  string  will 
bring  the  surfaces  on  small 
stocks  closer  together,  but 
large  stocks  will  bind  the  scion 
tight  enough.  Cover  the  whole 
SIDE  GRAFTING.  scion  with  moist  earth  until 

growth  starts,  when  the  top  should  be  cut  away.  I  omitted 
to  say  that  from  the  middle  of  September  to  the  middle  of 
October  here,  perhaps  August  at  the  North,  is  an  excellent 
time  to  graft  all  kinds  of  trees,  with  scarcely  a  failure. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

Fruit  Changed  by  Pollination. 

THE  almost  universally  accepted  idea  is,  that  the  charac- 
teristics of  fruit  are  never  affected  or  changed  by  polli- 
nation the  same  season.  And  yet  there  is  nothing  more 
certain  than  that  the  contrary  is  true,  and  I  intend  to  demon- 
strate it  this  season  to  competent  witnesses.  I  will  now  give 
several  instances.  The  first  will  be  an  arbor  of  six  Niagara 
and  six  Lindley  grape  vines  here  in  Galveston,  owned  by  Col. 
S.  T.  Fontaine.  The  vines  are  four  years  old,  and  bore  a 
very  heavy  crop  last  year,  all  of  which  was  white  except  a  few 
stray  pink  bunches,  but  not  a  single  genuine  Lindley-colored 
bunch.  The  Lindley  bore  the  first  year  and  the  Niagara  did 
not,  and  every  grape  was  of  the  natural  red  color,  but  when 
dominated  by  the  Niagara  pollen,  the  second  year,  all  but  a 
few  were  white.  The  second  instance  of  this  came  under  my 
observation  for  several  years  in  the  yard  of  N.  N.  John,  of 
this  city,  where  the  Niagara  again  dominated  and  changed 
the  Jefferson  to  white.  The  third  instance  was  on  my  own 
grounds  at  Hitchcock,  where  a  black  grape,  the  Holmes, 
grafted  on  Golden  Chasselas,  with  a  shoot  of  the  latter 
allowed  to  grow  and  fruit  also,  was  dominated  by  the  Chas- 
selas, and  the  fruit  of  the  Holmes  turned  to  a  pale  pink.  A 
fourth  instance  is  the  following,  clipped  from  a  recent  issue 
of  The  Rural  New-  Yorker  : 

"Some  years  ago  D.  S.  Marvin,  of  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  set  out  a 
Brighton  layer,  from  a  dry  clay  knoll,  among  some  Delawares,  where 
the  soil  was  made  moist  by  slop  water.  This  vine  no  longer  bears 
Brighton  grapes,  but  the  fruit  is  red,  ripening  a  week  later  than 
Brighton.  The  skin  is  thicker,  and  these  grapes  now  keep  as  well  as 
Catawbas,  not  deteriorating  after  picking,  like  the  Brighton,  but  re- 
maining firm,  with  much  sprightliness  and  substance.  The  leaf  is 
stronger  and  thicker  and  the  notches  less  coarse." 

But  the  grape  is  not  the  only  fruit  thus  affected.     There 

(i55) 


156  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

stands  in  Mr.  Joe  Marcos'  yard,  on  firm,  unbroken  soil,  a 
seedling  tree  that  for  several  years  bore  freestone  peaches, 
which  I  know  to  be  a  fact,  having  eaten  of  them.  A  second 
seedling  came  up  near  by  a  few  years  later,  and  when  it  bore 
it  proved  to  be  a  cling.  Ever  since  then  its  pollen  has  domi- 
nated, and  both  trees  have  borne  clingstone  fruit.  Another 
instance  is  an  orange  tree  that  stands  in  Capt.  W.  Dugat's 
yard,  in  Beeville,  Texas,  which  bore  for  some  years  a  very 
thin-skinned  orange  with  few  seeds.  Later  on  a  sour  orange 
close  by  began  to  bear,  the  fruit  being  very  thick-skinned  and 
full  of  seeds.  The  skin  of  the  first  became  coarse,  also,  and 
the  number  of  seeds  increased,  while  the  flavor  deteriorated 
greatly.  A  final  instance  is  from  a  letter  of  inquiry  printed 
in  the  April  issue  of  Green's  Fruit-  Grower : 

MR.  CHAS.  A.  GREEN  :  I  have  one  grape  trellis  208  feet  long, 
and  a  few  vines  of  Brighton,  Green  Mountain,  Wyoming  Red  and 
Moyer;  perhaps  two  of  each  variety,  the  larger  number  of  Moore's 
Early  and  Diamond  ;  there  are  two  vines  of  F.  B.  Hayes  ;  these  two 
do  not  ripen  quite  as  early  as  what  we  have  called  the  Diamond. 
The  Diamond,  on  the  side  of  my  house,  is  greenish  white,  with  a  very 
slight  golden  color.  The  Diamonds  on  the  trellis  are  a  dark  amber 
or  light  maroon  in  color,  about  the  same  color  of  your  Moyer  grape — 
a  little  lighter  in  color.  The  vines  on  the  house  grow  about  the 
same,  and  appear  to  be  the  same  in  wood  and  leaf.  Is  it  caused  by 
the  grapes  mixing  with  the  Moore's  Early  when  in  bloom  ? 

I  have  three  apple  trees ;  two  of  them  are  Talman  Sweets, 
one  is  Hubbardston  Non-Such.  The  Hubbardston  is  planted  half 
way  between  and  the  limbs  interlace.  This  year  the  Hubbardston 
cannot  be  told  from  one  of  the  Talman  Sweets.  One  of  the  Sweets 
is  large  and  flattish  in  form.  The  other  is  round  and  slightly  conical. 
I  have  shown  the  apples  to  some  of  my  friends — one  to  J.  P.  Went- 
worth,  of  the  City  Council.  When  you  cut  the  Sweets  they  turn  a 
yellowish  color.  The  other,  the  Hubbardston,  is  sound,  and  tastes 
more  like  the  Hubbardstqn.  From  the  outside  we  could  not  tell  them 
apart.  Even  the  line  on  one  side  is  there.  Is  it  caused  by  the  pollen 
getting  mixed  ?  I  have  one  or  two  apples  of  the  Talman  and  Hub- 
bard  in  my  cellar.  Now,  what  I  want  most  is,  to  know  what  the 
grapes  are.  Are  they  Diamonds  or  Brightens  ?  I  bought  them  for 
Diamonds.  Respectfully  yours, 

H.  A.  CHANNELL,  Maine. 

Reply :  While  I  cannot  say  positively  in  regard  to  your  individual 
case,  I  am  certain  that  varieties  of  fruits  are  changed  in  appearance, 
size  and  quality  by  the  influences  of  surrounding  blossoms.  Where 
an  Early  Harvest  apple  tree  threw  its  branches  into  the  tree  of  a 


FRUIT     CHANGED     BY     POLLINATION.  157 

winter  apple  tree  I  have  seen  Early  Harvest  apples  growing  on 
branches  of  the  winter  apple,  which  were  not  grafted  there.  There 
are  many  strange  things  in  nature,  which  are  not  as  yet  understood 
by  any  one. — C.  A.  GREEN. 

While  this  action  of  pollen  is  rare,  still  it  does  happen, 
and  it  would  be  well  to  look  out  for  such  effects  in  planting 
orchards  where  varieties  of  the  apples  named  are  used. 
Especially  should  care  be  taken  to  keep  the  Lindley  and  Jef- 
ferson away  from  the  Niagara  grape  vine,  if  it  be  desired  to 
maintain  the  red  color.  Of  course,  some  of  our  latter-day 
authorities,  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  wisdom  of  the  past, 
will  scout  these  facts,  and  show  just  as  conclusively  by  argu- 
ment that  the  thing  cannot  be  true,  as  they  did  about  my 
close  root-pruning  method,  five  or  six  years  ago. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Hybridism  by  Grafting  and  budding. 

WHILE  it  is  known  that  hybrids  have  been  formed  by 
grafting  as  well  as  by  crossing  through  the  pollen,  it 
is 'considered   so   rare   that  very  little   attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  subject,  and  the  general  opinion  among  a 
large  majority  of  fruit-growers  is  that  such  a  thing  is  impos- 
sible.     Chas.  Downing,  on  page  4,  paragraph  4,  of  his  work 
on   fruits,    makes   the   following   interesting    remarks   on   the 
subject  : 

"  But  there  is  still  another  reason  for  this  habit,  so  perplexing  to 
the  novice,  who,  having  tasted  a  luscious  fruit,  plants,  watches,  and 
rears  its  seedling,  to  find  it,  perhaps,  wholly  different  in  •  most 
respects.  This  is  the  influence  of  grafting.  Among  the  great 
number  of  seedling  fruits  produced  in  the  United  States,  there  is 
found  occasionally  a  variety,  perhaps  a  plum  or  a  peach,  which  will 
nearly  always  reproduce  itself  from  seed.  From  some  fortunate 
circumstances  in  its  origin,  unknown  to  us,  this  sort,  in  becoming  im- 
proved, still  retains  strongly  this  habit  of  the  natural  or  wild  form, 
and  the  seeds  produce  the  same.  We  can  call  to  mind  several 
examples  of  this  :  fine  fruit  trees  whose  seeds  have  established  the 
reputation  in  the  neighborhood  of  fidelity  to  the  sort.  But  when  a 
g>aft  is  taken  from  one  of  these  trees,  and  placed  upon  another 
stock,  this  grafted  tree  is  found  to  lose  its  singular  power  of  pro- 
ducing the  same  by  seed.  The  stock  exercises  some  as  yet  unex- 
plained power  in  dissolving  the  strong  natural  habit  of  the  variety, 
and  becomes,  like  its  fellows,  subject  to  the  laws  of  its  artificial  life." 

In  a  marginal  note  the  editor  comments  on  the  above,  and 
clearly  expresses  the  general  belief  of  to-day,  that  the  stock 
has  no  effect  on  the  seed  of  fruit  grown  on  the  scions.  He 
says  : 

"The  doctrine  here  advanced  has,  perhaps,  no  foundation  in  fact, 
nor  has  there  been  any  test  made  that,  to  our  knowledge,  would 
controvert  it.  Observation  of  many  years,  however,  leads  to  the 
belief  that  the  mere  engrafting  a  variety  upon  another  stock  in  no 
way  affects  its  habit  or  capacity  for  reproducing  itself  just  the  same 
as  it  would  if  retained  upon  its  parent  root." 

The  uniformly  negative  opinion  as  to  graft  or  bud  hybrid- 

(158) 


HYBRIDISM    BY    GRAFTING    AND    BUDDING.  159 

ism  has,  doubtless,  arisen  from  the  great  difficulty,  in  fact 
impossibility  heretofore,  of  obtaining  definite  proofs  of  such 
hybridism  in  the  resulting  products  between  individuals  of 
the  same  species.  The  different  varieties  of  apples,  pears, 
peaches  and  plums  have  leaves  resembling  each  other  suffi- 
ciently closely  to  prevent  any  cross  from  a  stock  and  scion 
showing  with  marked  distinctness  in  the  product  of  the  seed. 
But  in  the  instance  I  will  presently  offer,  we  have  two  kinds 
of  the  same  species  so  entirely  distinct  in  every  point  that 
when  grafted,  or  rather  top-budded,  one  upon  the  other,  and 
the  seed  of  the  scion  planted,  we  are  able  to  detect  in  the 
product  the  distinct  peculiarities  of  both  so  plainly  that  the 
conclusion  as  to  a  genuine  hybridism  seems  irresistible. 
And  why,  indeed,  should  there  be  such  incredulity  or  doubt 
as  to  not  only  the  possibility  of  such  a  result,  but  even  the 
probability  of  an  actual  cross  in  every  case  of  trees  grown 
from  seed  taken  from  grafted  or  budded  trees  of  the  same 
species  ?  Remembering  that  the  stock  is  the  actual  provider 
and  dispenser  of  all  the  plant-food  received  by  the  scion,  and 
that  general  experience  has  shown  that  certain  stocks  do  give 
additional  vigor  to  other  weakly  growers,  as  a  Delaware 
grafted  on  a  Niagara  grape  vine,  and  also  add  size  to  the 
berry,  as  always  results  from  such  a  union,  I  see  no  physio- 
logical reason  for  doubting  that  the  stock  must,  of  necessity, 
stamp  some  of  its  characteristics  on  the  seed  also.  It  is 
freely  admitted  that  vigor,  longevity  and  productiveness,  as 
well  as  size  of  fruit,  can  be  imparted  by  the  stock  to  the  scion  ; 
and  yet,  when  asked  to  go  to  the  logical  conclusion,  and  add, 
"affect  the  seed  also,"  a  prompt  negative  is  given.  .  May  not 
the  overlooking  of  this  important  fact  be  the  reason  why, 
considering  the  vast  number  of  seedlings  of  every  kind  that 
have  been  grown  and  tested,  the  number  of  meritorious 
varieties  of  recent  years  that  are  equal  to  the  older  sorts  is  so 
small?  The  really  valuable  varieties  can  almost  be  counted 
on  the  two  hands.  Now,  why  this  great  scarcity  of  improved 
kinds  from  so  many  millions  of  seeds?  Is  there  any  reason- 
able explanation,  except  that  we  start  out  with  a  "degen- 
erate" as  one  of  the  parents  of  our  seed?  For  instance,  in 


l6o  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

our  efforts  to  originate  new  varieties,  do  we  not  select  our 
seed  from  perhaps  a  Bartlett  pear,  an  Elberta  peach,  or  a 
Baldwin  apple,  grafted  or  budded  on  some  common,  scrub 
seedling  stock,  and  then  are  greatly  surprised  to  find  the 
children  inferior  to  the  parents?  I  will  now  give  a  plain  case 
of  stock  and  scion  hybridism  which  is  of  peculiar  interest, 
because  it  furnishes  an  almost  perfect  demonstration  of  this 
most  important  principle,  which,  if  true  in  this  instance, 
ought  to  hold  equally  good  with  all  other  fruits. 

About  seven  years  ago,  in  rny  first  experiments  with  the 
Satsuma  orange,  I  found  that  a  temperature  of  eighteen 
degrees  killed  it  to  the  ground,  though  it  had  been  falsely 
claimed  to  have  stood  a  temperature  of  twelve  degrees  in 
California.  Having  about  five  hundred  Trifoliata  stocks, 
which  I  had  planted  for  budding  before  I  found  this  out,  and 
finding  the  Satsuma  too  tender  when  grafted  low  down  in  the 
ground,  the  idea  occurred  to  me  that,  as  the  Trifoliata  was 
perfectly  hardy,  a  deciduous  orange,  and  went  to  rest  more 
completely  and  remained  so  later  than  the  Satsuma,  if  the 
buds  were  inserted  about  two  feet  above  ground,  perhaps  the 
tops  would  be  unable  to  stimulate  a  movement  of  the  sap  in 
the  body  so  early  as  if  budded  near  the  ground.  If  it  could 
not,  then  the  Satsuma  would  be  more  hardy  than  when 
grafted  low  down  ;  for  the  whole  question  of  the  hardiness  of 
orange  trees  in  winter  here  is  the  condition  of  the  sap.  So, 
acting  on  this  notion,  I  top-budded  the  whole  lot  except  four, 
which  I  budded  as  low  down  as  possible  for  trial.  The  buds 
all  made  a  good  growth  the  next  season,  but  in  the  following 
January,  quite  a  severe  freeze  occurred,  and  in  a  few  days  the: 
four  low-budded  trees  showed  severe  damage,  and  in  a  week 
were  all  dead,  while  not  a  shoot  on  the  top-budded  trees  was 
hurt.  Overjoyed  at  this,  the  whole  lot  was  taken  up  care- 
fully with  small  balls  of  earth,  and  set  out  in  a  grove  to  fruit, 
where  they  remained,  grew  finely  for  four  years,  until  killed, 
and  bore  quite  a  number  of  oranges.  When  the  fruit  was 
ripe,  being  too  few  to  sell,  we  ate  them,  and  nearly  all  had 
seed,  some  oranges  having  as  many  as  three,  though  it  is  well 
known  that  the  fruit  from  low-grafted  trees  is  practically 


HYBRIDISM    BY    GRAFTING    AND    BUDDING.  l6l 

seedless.  Here,  then,  was  a  decided  change  and  influence  of 
the  stock  on  the  Satsuma,  both  in  hardiness  and  the  putting 
of  seed  into  the  fruit,  where  few  were  ever  seen  before. 
While  I  had  paid  no  attention  to  this  subject,  these  facts  sug- 
gested the  probability  of  obtaining  a  genuine  hybrid  thus,  so 
some  of  the  seeds  were  saved  and  planted.  When  they  were 
up  a  foot  or  so  high,  I  had  a  visit  from  a  scientific  and  prom- 
inent fruit  grower  of  Texas,  and  on  taking  him,  with  great 
pride,  to  see  my  pets,  and  explaining  the  facts,  he  laughed 
heartily  at  my  enthusiasm,  and  said  the  whole  idea  of  their 
being  hybrids  was  absurd.  I  then  pointed  out,  that  while  alt 
were  plainly  sweet  oranges,  from  the  peculiarities  of  the 
leaves,  yet  nearly  all  were  more  or  less  thorny,  some  as  much 
so  as  the  Trifoliata,  while  the  Satsuma  has  no  thorns  at  all. 
Moreover,  a  sign  of  the  Trifoliata  leaf  was  plainly  visible  on 
several  trees.  But  all  to  no  purpose  ;  and  in  answer  to  my 
direct  question,  What  sort  of  fruit  I  would  get,  he  replied 
confidently,  "Satsuma."  Having  sold  my  place  shortly 
after,  these  seedlings  were  moved,  and  last  year  stood  a  tem- 
perature of  ten  degrees,  all  other  sweet  orange  trees  being 
killed,  and  I  feel  confident,  unless  the  trees  happened  to  be 
in  a  peculiarly  dormant  condition,  that  they  will  prove  hardy 
here,  and  perhaps  over  the  whole  lower  part  of  Texas,  show- 
ing plainly  that  they  are  true  hybrids  of  the  Satsuma  and  the 
entirely  hardy  Trifoliata.  Just  what  the  fruit  will  be,  of 
course,  nothing  can  be  known  yet,  but  there  is  no  reason  why 
some  of  the  oranges  will  not  be  sweet.  Of  course,  if  they 
are,  and  they  continue  to  prove  hardy,  it  will  work  a  revolu- 
tion in  orange  growing  ;  for  by  the  same  method  hybrids  can 
be  obtained  between  any  of  the  finer  and  larger  sweet 
oranges  and  the  Trifoliata,  and  thus  many  new  and  hardy 
varieties  can  be  grown  with  perfect  success  all  through  the 
Gulf  States  generally;  and  by  repeated  crosses  on  Trifoliata 
the  hardiness  in  the  end  can  be  increased,  until  varieties  may 
be  originated  that  will  stand  the  climate  even  of  the  whole 
South. 

The  accompanying  illustrations  (see  page  163)  will  demon- 
strate the  truth  of  all  I  claim.      The  first  shows  a  branch  of 

II  — HORT. 


l62  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

the  thorny  and  very  seedy  Trifoliata  stock,  on  which,  two  feet 
above  the  ground,  was  budded  the  thornless  and  seedless  Sat- 
suma,  shown  alongside.  The  result  was  to  put  seed  into  the 
fruit  of  nearly  every  Satsuma  orange,  as  well  as  to  increase 
the  hardiness  of  that  variety,  thus  top-budded.  The  seeds, 
when  planted,  produced  apparently  sweet  orange  trees,  as  far 
as  can  be  judged  from  the  leaves.  While  some  of  the 
twenty-seven  trees  are  entirely  thornless  like  the  Satsuma, 
others  have  thorns  of  varying  lengths,  from  very  short  to 
very  long,  as  shown  in  the  second  illustration  (which  is  a 
photograph  of  four  shoots  from  among  the  twenty-seven 
seedlings);  and  one  tree,  No.  i,  actually  intermits  its  thorns, 
just  as  grape  vines  do  their  tendrils,  there  being  three  inter- 
missions, as  shown  at  the  bottom,  middle  and  top,  and  two 
thorns  between.  Moreover,  those  twenty-seven  seedlings 
have  stood  a  temperature  without  injury  of  ten  degrees,  a 
degree  of  cold  that  no  common  orange  has  ever  survived.  I 
wish  to  call  particular  attention  to  the  leaves  designated  with 
a  ring,  showing  plain  markings,  in  their  round  and  split  ends, 
of  the  Trifoliata  leaf,  and  especially  to  the  small  leaf  of  the 
hybrid  marked  5,  which  is  identical  in  shape  with  a  part  of  a 
leaf  of  the  Trifoliata  also  marked  5. 

Of  course,  the  most  interesting  and  conclusive  part  of 
this  experiment  has  yet  to  come,  in  the  shape  of  the  fruit. 
Whether  some  of  these  seedlings  will  take  after  one  parent 
and  some  the  other,  or  whether  all  will  be  moderately  sour 
and  require  another  cross,  for  instance  with  the  seedless 
Navel,  is  an  important  question.  But,  applying  this  principle 
to  all  other  kinds  of  fruits,  why  may  it  not  be  equally  true 
also?  I  now  have  experiments  under  way  to  find  out  whether 
any  fruit  tree  put  upon  its  own  roots,  like  the  Trifoliata,  by 
the  method  of  Japan  or  saddle  grafting,  shown  elsewhere, 
and  then  cutting  away  the  stock  after  the  cion  has  struck  root 
on  itself,  will  not  reproduce  itself  to  a  great  extent  from  seed 
at  first,  and  perfectly  in  a  few  years,  when  planted  apart  from 
other  trees  of  the  same  species.  How  far  the  principle  of 
heredity  will  affect  the  fruit,  or  how  long,  remains  to  be  seen. 
I  think  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  an  Elberta  peach, 


HYBRIDIZING    BY    GRAFTING    AND    BUDDING.  163 


3  4 


BRANCHES   I-'ROM   FOUR   CK   TWENTY-SEVEN   HYBRID   SEEDLINGS.      SEE   PAGES  J6o-l62. 


164  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

for  instance,  on  its  own  roots  as  a  stock,  and  top-budded 
with  another  valuable  variety,  will  give  better  fruit  from  the 
seed  than  if  that  variety  had  been  grown  on  an  inferior  seed- 
ling stock. 

This  opens  a  new  and  wide  field  for  experiment  and  im- 
provement, especially  of  our  earlier  varieties,  on  the  point  of 
size.  Of  course,  experiments  must  be  conducted  at  a  reason- 
able distance  from  the  pollen  of  other  trees,  or  selected 
branches  protected  from  foreign  pollination,  when  a  true 
hybrid  is  desired.  If  this  principle  of  graft  and  bud  hybrid- 
ism be  true,  and  the  facts  point  strongly  that  way,  it  will 
afford  for  the  ordinary  fruit-grower  an  easy  and  certain 
method  of  experimenting  with  all  kinds  of  fruit,  and  will 
add  greatly  to  his  interest  in  horticulture,  as  well  as  result  in 
new  and  improved  varieties.  My  efforts  are  now  being 
directed  not  only  toward  originating  hardy  sweet  oranges, 
but  also  larger  and  finer  peaches  than  will  now  bear  well  this 
far  South.  With  that  view  I  have  now  growing  for  stock,  on 
their  own  roots,  the  Elberta,  Mamie  Ross,  Sneed  and 
Triumph,  none  of  which  are  productive  here,  and  have  top- 
budded  them  with  Waldo,  Angel  and  Imperial,  all  of  the 
oriental  type,  and  exceedingly  productive  and  of  excellent 
quality,  though  the  fruit  is  almost  too  small  for  market.  As 
the  latter  bloom  long  before  the  former  Persian  varieties,  it 
has  been  impossible  heretofore  to  cross  them  by  the  pollen. 
The  same  difficulty  lies  with  the  Trifoliata  and  common  sweet 
oranges,  the  latter*all  blooming  first.  I  herewith  append  a 
statement  from  Mr.  E.  P.  Stiles,  editor  of  the  Horticultural 
Gleaner,  published  at  Austin,  which  bears  on  this  subject : 

Dear  Sir — I  have  a  very  fine  seedling  peach,  which  I  have  been 
fruiting  for  many  years,  using  until  lately  common  seedlings  indis- 
criminately for  stocks.  I  have  noticed  a  very  great  variation  in  the 
conduct  of  this  peach  on  different  stocks,  both  in  vigor  and  produc- 
tiveness, as  well  as  size  and  appearance  of  the  fruit.  By  chance  I 
propagated  several  trees  on  Mountain  Rose  seedlings,  and  found 
them  so  superior  on  that  stock  that  I  am  now  using  it  exclusively,  and 
find  that  it  continues  to  maintain  its  superiority.  This  difference  in 
the  fruit  is  not  due  to  any  local  causes,  tests  having  been  made  to 
determine  that  point.  Referring  to  the  subject  of  graft  hybrids,  on 
which  you  are  experimenting,  I  must  say  that  I  can  see  no  reason 


HYBRIDISM    BY    GRAFTING    AND    BUDDING.  165 

why  the  Mountain  Rose  should  not  affect  the  seed  of   my  peach  as 
well  as  other  points.  Truly,  E.  P.  STILES. 

I  will  now  conclude  this  subject  with  a  short  letter  from 
Prof.  W.  F.  Massey,  of  the  North  Carolina  Experiment  Sta- 
tion, to  whom  I  sent  leaves  and  copies  of  the  accompanying 
photographs  (see  page  163),  with  the  simple  statement  chat 
the  four  branches  were  from  trees  grown  from  Satsuma 
oranges,  and  that  I  believed  they  were  hybrids  of  that  orange 
and  the  Trifoliata.  Wishing  him  to  be  totally  unbiassed  in 
his  judgment,  I  did  not  state  just  how  they  were  grown,  and 
asked  his  opinion  on  the  bare  facts.  I  knew  that  he  had  been 
experimenting  with  both  of  these  oranges,  and  felt  sure  that 
he  would  give  me  a  clear  and  impartial  opinion,  which  he 
did,  and  which  goes  far  to  confirm  me  in  my  own  view : 

N.  C.  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION, 
Horticultural  Division,  RALEIGH,  N.  C.,/##<?p,  1896. 

W.  F.  Massey,  Horticulturist. 
H.  M.  STRINGFELLOW,  Gatveston,  Texas: 

Dear  Sir — Yours  of  the  2d  came  to  hand  in  due  time,  and  would 
have  had  earlier  attention  but  for  the  press  of  work  just  at  com- 
mencement time.  I  am  now  much  interested  in  the  cross-bred 
plants,  and  believe  you  have  a  hybrid,  or  more  than  one.  Will  be 
glad  to  test  them  for  you  here.  Yours  truly, 

W.  F.  MASSEY. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Dwarfing  Trees  on  Their  Own  Roots. 

AND  now,  a  few  suggestions  on  the  dwarfing  of  trees  on 
their  own  roots,  after  the  Japanese  method,  whereby 
those  people  were  able  to  exhibit  forest  trees  at  the 
World's  Fair  over  two  hundred  years  old  and  only  two  and 
three  feet  high.  The  principle  of  the  whole  process  is  just 
what  Charles  Downing  says  would  be  "ideal  transplanting," 
namely,  to  move  with  roots  entire.  Doubtless  they  do  this 
repeatedly,  leaving  all  the  tops  on  ;  also  withholding  food 
and  water  except  enough  to  keep  the  tree  fairly  alive  until 
completely  dwarfed  ;  then  from  generation  to  generation  plant- 
ing the  seed  of  the  dwarfed  tree,  whatever  it  may  be.  Such 
trees  are  doubtless  the  result  of  many  hundreds  of  years  of 
selection  and  propagation,  handed  down  as  heirlooms.  But  at 
the  same  time  it  is  almost  incredible  how  completely  even  a 
vigorous  tree  like  the  cottonwood  may  be  dwarfed  by  a  single 
transplanting  with  very  long  roots.  To  illustrate,  I  will  state 
that  fourteen  years  ago,  when  I  moved  to  Hitchcock  and 
planted  my  orchard,  I  had  such  confidence  in  its  success  that, 
wishing  to  break  the  force  of  the  strong  south  winds  and 
keep  the  fruit  from  being  blown  off,  I  planted  a  row  of  cot- 
tonwood cuttings  along  the  south  and  long  side.  About  six 
inches  of  soil  from  a  shallow  ditch  was  thrown  up  under  the 
lower  wire  of  the  fence,  and  cuttings  planted  forty  feet  apart 
in  the  loose  soil,  the  lower  ends  resting  on  the  unbroken  top 
soil  below.  My  intention  was  to  alternate  with  sycamore  be- 
tween, but  this  was  never  done.  Now  the  limbs  of  most  of 
them  are  lapping  between,  and  they  tower  fully  seventy-five 
feet  or  more  in  the  air,  and  several  of  them  are  two  feet  in 
diameter  two  feet  above  ground.  This  applies  generally  to 
all  but  two.  One  is  about  one  foot  in  diameter  and  thirty-five 
to  forty  feet  high,  and  the  other  about  six  inches  and  twenty- 

(166) 


DWARFING    TREES    ON    THEIR    OWN    ROOTS.  l6/ 

five  feet  high.  Being  alongside  of  the  road,  the  whole  row 
has  been  kept  perfectly  clean  on  one  side  all  the  time,  and 
half  the  row,  including  the  two  latter,  have  had  constant 
clean  culture  on  both  sides,  being  in  the  center  of  an  avenue. 
None  have  ever  been  plowed.  The  two  smaller  trees,  more- 
over, have  had  annual  dressings  of  cotton-seed  meal  and 
ashes  to  make  them  grow,  and  the  smallest  has  had  several 
dressings  of  thirty  pounds  of  the  meal.  Now,  if  I  had  not 
posted  my  readers  half-way  already,  I  would  wager  that  not 
one  could  tell  the  reason  of  this  wonderful  disparity  in 
size.  Perhaps  they  will  not  believe  me  when  I  tell  them,  but 
it  was  simply  a  case  of  too  much  root.  The  first  year  those 
two  cuttings  failed  to  grow  and,  as  the  others  had  all  done 
well,  I  concluded  to  plant  two  extra  fine  trees  in  extra  fine 
style,  and  make  them  keep  up  with  the  procession.  So  I  went 
over  to  Lamarque,  where  some  young  trees  were  growing, 
and,  selecting  two,  cut  back  the  bodies,  that  were  two  and 
one-half  to  three  inches  in  diameter,  to  six  feet,  and  preceded 
to  dig.  Like  most  people  now,  I  had  unlimited  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  long  roots,  and  started  the  first  at  six  feet  from  the 
tree.  We  all  worked  manfully  spading  out  the  soil,  to  pre- 
serve every  root  that  was  possible,  and  we  finally  got  that 
tree  out  in  fine  shape,  leaving  a  twelve-foot  hole  and  the  bot- 
tom well  watered  with  sweat.  This  is  now  the  smaller  of  the 
two.  But,  finding  the  job  more  than  we  bargained  for,  we 
compromised  on  a  three-foot  root  system  for  the  other,  and 
soon  had  it  out  also.  I  forgot  to  say  that  the  trees  had  both 
been  transplanted  once  before,  and  had  what  I  thought  was  a 
most  beautiful  lot  of  roots.  Well,  on  reaching  home,  being 
all  tired  out  and  not  wishing  to  slight  the  work,  the  replant- 
ing was  put  of  until  the  next  day,  when  we  went  at  it  afresh, 
and  at  last  finished  just  the  nicest  transplanting  job  ever 
done,  the  holes  being  nearly  two  feet  deep,  top  soil  thrown  to 
one  side,  carefully  beat  up  and  pulverized  before  filling  in  to 
one  foot,  then  more  fine  soil  hauled  and  worked  in  carefully 
among  the  roots,  after  the  most  approved  fashion  now  laid 
down  in  all  the  books.  The  work  at  last  completed,  I  called 
my  wife  to  see  what  a  beautiful  job  we  had  made,  with  the 


1 68  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

nice  clean  stems  as  straight  as  an  arrow.  While  I  had  no 
fear  of  their  not  keeping  ahead  of  the  balance  of  the  row, 
about  four  feet  high  and  as  large  as  my  thumb,  still,  when  I 
came  to  fertilize  all,  I  gave  these  two  a  double  dose  of  cotton- 
seed meal.  Well,  to  cut  the  story  short,  in  spite  of  all  I 
could  do  in  the  way  of  annual  fertilizing  and  absolutely  clean 
culture,  from  that  time  until  a  year  ago,  when  my  health 
failed  from  overwork  and  I  sold  the  place,  the  figures  given 
above  tell  the  tale  of  too  much  root.  The  tree  that  had  six 
feet  of  root  is  half  the  size  of  the  one  that  had  three,  and  the 
latter  is  less  than  half  the  size  of  the  balance  of  the  row 
that  had  no  roots  at  all.  But  both  of  the  smaller  trees  are 
of  nice  shape,  perfectly  healthy,  and  the  smallest  a  real 
beauty,  and  from  it  I  took  the  hint  as  to  how  the  Japanese 
worked  the  dwarfing  trick.  Those  who  wish  to  try  it  might 
start  with,  say,  a  live  oak  acorn  or  other  tree  seed  in  a  small 
pot  of  sand  or  poor  soil.  At  the  end  of  the  season  shift  to  a 
size  or  two  larger,  shaking  off  all  the  soil  and  leaving  on  all 
the  roots  and  top.  This  alone  would  dwarf  it  greatly,  but  if 
repeated  the  second  year  much  more  so.  How  often  this 
transplanting  with  roots  and  tops  entire  would  be  necessary 
experience  alone  could  demonstrate.  Now  the  question  is, 
could  this  be  utilized  for  dwarfing  apples,  pears,  cherries, 
etc.,  in  small  areas  where  desirable,  and  the  trees  maintain 
their  health?  Judging  from  the  health  of  the  small  cotton- 
wood  described  above,  I  believe  it  could,  providing  the  trees 
were  never  pruned  when  at  rest,  and  the  roots  never  dis- 
turbed. Any  two  or  three-year  apple  or  other  tree  can 
certainly  be  permanently  dwarfed  by  a  single  transplanting, 
if  taken  up  with  several  feet  of  root  and  reset  with  a  large 
part  of  the  top,  taking  care  to  spread  the  roots  out  laterally, 
as  directed  in  the  books. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

Wby    Trees  in   Bottoms  never   Drown — Aeration. 

FEW  persons,  unless  they  have  tested  it,  have  any  idea  of 
that  peculiar  quality  that  soils  never  disturbed  deeply 
have  of  holding  water  on  the  surface,  in  ponds,  for 
instance,  for  years,  and  yet  immediately  after  being  drained, 
if  examined,  the  ground  will  be  found  friable  and  ready  for 
the  plow  just  beneath.  I  once  undertook  to  grow  carp,  and 
for  two  years  kept  a  small  pond  filled  with  water  ;  but  find- 
ing the  venture  a  failure,  and  having  drained  the  water  off, 
the  idea  occurred  to  me  to  examine  the  bottom  at  once,  and 
see  how  deep  the  mud  was.  To  my  amazement,  it  was  only 
about  three  or  four  inches  deep,  and  on  being  scraped  away 
with  a  hoe,  the  bottom  was  actually  ready  for  the  plow.  The 
few  inches  of  previously  stirred  surface  was  mud,  but  the 
balance  firm.  This  peculiarity  of  unbroken  ground  not  tak- 
ing up  and  holding  water  in  it  in  a  free  or  mud  state  is  a  wise 
provision  of  nature,  and  accounts  for  the  fact  that  wild  grape 
vines  and  forest  trees  in  river  bottoms  are  often,  for  weeks, 
several  feet  under  water  without  the  slightest  harm.  Had 
such  ground  been  deeply  plowed,  and  especially  subsoiled, 
trees  in  such  locations  would  certainly  be  killed.  But  never 
having  been  disturbed,  the  particles  of  soil  are  in  that  pecu- 
liar natural  relation  to  each  other  that,  while  they  readily 
admit  between  them  a  certain  quantity  of  water,  and  allow  its 
passage  through  to  the  roots  and  subsoil,  it  is  impossible  to 
make  such  undisturbed  ground  take  more  than  that  specified 
amount,  and  so  tree  roots  under  such  circumstances  are  not 
by  any  means  standing  in  mud  several  feet  deep,  as  many 
people  ignorantly  suppose.  While  I  am  sure  all  my  readers 
can  recall  instances  in  their  own  knowledge  of  trees  standing 
thus  in  water  for  weeks  in  low  places,  and  apparently  enjoy- 
ing the  bath,  a  most  remarkable  instance  was  told  me 

(169) 


170  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

recently  by  a  gentleman,  who  knows  of  three  pecan  trees 
that  have  stood  for  two  years  on  stiff  land  in  North  Texas, 
with  about  one  foot  of  water  continuously  covering  the 
whole  surface  of  the  ground  for  several  hundred  feet.  They 
bear  fine  pecans  just  as  regularly  as  other  trees,  which  fall 
upon  the  water  every  year  and  are  blown  ashore  by  the  wind, 
some  of  which  he  has  thus  gathered  and  eaten.  Could  that 
water  be  drained  off  and  the  earth  examined  below,  it  would 
be  found  practically  just  like  any  ordinary  well-drained  land 
after  rain.  Just  that  wet,  and  no  more.  Who  doubts  the 
fate  of  those  trees  if  the  ground  had  been  deeply  plowed  and 
then  thus  flooded  ?  But  to  a  limited  degree  for  a  few  days 
after  excessive  rains,  all  deeply  stirred  land  is  in  a  condition 
of  mud,  and  the  fine  fibrous  feeding  roots  of  all  fruit  trees  on 
such  ground  must  necessairly  be  either  scalded  and  drowned 
out,  more  or  less,  in  summer,  or  seriously  injured  by  severe 
cold  after  such  excessive  rains  in  winter.  After  being  once 
disturbed  deeply,  it  requires  many  years  to  again  compact  the 
soil  and  bring  it  into  its  original  state.  This  can  easily  be 
proved  by  examining,  after'  continued  rains,  trees  that  were 
planted  in  large,  deep  holes,  though  it  readily  shows  for  itself 
if  the  rain  be  accompanied  with  a  strong  wind.  In  such  case, 
fruit  trees  six  or  seven  years  or  more  of  age  are  often  twisted 
or  bent  half  over  from  working  in  the  soft  earth,  and  some- 
times are  blown  flat.  It  is  true  that  this  is  largely  due  to 
long  roots  when  planted,  but  in  any  case  such  a  saturated 
mud  condition  of  deeply  stirred  soil  cannot  but  be  injurious 
to  a  tree,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  chief  cause  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  different  forms  of  root  tumor  and  rot  now  so  com- 
mon in  the  South,  and  doubtless  of  yellows  and  black-knot, 
as  well  as  other  root  diseases  at  the  North.  Could  there  be 
more  convincing  proof  that  the  whole  theory  and  practice  of 
deep  plowing  and  large  holes  for  trees  is  wrong  and  contrary 
to  nature,  than  the  health,  vigor  and  long  life  of  forest  as  well 
as  all  chance  "seedling  fruit  trees  on  firm  unbroken  soil? 

But,  referring  again  to  the  pecan  tree  in  water,  alluded  to 
above,  do  trees  need  aeration  ?  While  it  is  undoubtedly  of 
great  service  to  all  soils  in  their  preparation  for  crops,  once 


WHY    TREES    IN    BOTTOMS    NEVER    DROWN AERATION.          iyi 

in  the  ground  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  to  prove  that 
the  admission  of  air  to  the  roots  of  any  tree  or  plant  by 
ploughing  or  cultivation  is  of  any  real  benefit.  The  facts 
now  given  will  show  that  the  theory  or  belief  that,  somehow 
or  other,  an  extra  supply  of  air  over  and  above  that  naturally 
contained  in  all  firm  soils  is  beneficial  to  tree  roots  in  cultiva- 
tion is  a  mistake.  I  had  a  row  of  bearing  orange  trees  many 
years  ago,  standing  just  behind  my  front  fence,  in  the  western 
part  of  the  city  of  Galveston.  After  the  great  storm  of  1875 
a  vast  amount  of  sand  was  washed  up  from  the  beach,  close 
to  which  my  place  was  situated,  and  deposited  in  the  street 
just  outside.  By  summer  the  strong  south  winds  had  blown 
the  most  of  it  through  my  picket  fence,  and  banked  it  up  from 
three  to  four  feet  around  the  bodies  of  the  orange  trees. 
Many  people  thought  it  would  hurt  them,  but  believing  to  the 
contrary,  I  leveled  it  all  down  nicely,  leaving  the  bodies 
standing  fully  three  feet  in  beach  sand.  On  this  was  spread 
a  heavy  coat  of  barnyard  manure.  The  next  year  those  trees 
made  a  most  remarkably  strong  growth,  and  continued  to  do 
well  until  killed  by  the  freeze  of  1886. 

Another  instance  occurred  last  fall.  When  passing  along 
near  the  sidewalk  of  a  friend  in  this  city,  who  had  a  long  row 
of  live  oaks  five  to  eight  inches  in  diameter  standing  on  low 
ground  which  he  was  about  to  fill  up,  I  saw  that  he  had  taken 
up  about  half  of  the  trees,  and  raised  them  several  feet,  as 
the  sidewalk  was  being  filled  in.  I  told  him  about  my  orange 
trees,  and  advised  him  to  treat  his  oaks  the  same  way.  He 
did  so,  filling  in  with  good  earth  from  the  mainland.  The 
result  was  continued  good  health,  and  a  fine  growth  the  past 
season.  While  the  filling  on  the  public  square  with  strong 
manure,  as  noted  elsewhere,  was  very  injurious,  any  quantity 
of  soil  can  be  placed  around  trees  with  safety,  if  not  actual 
benefit. 

After  all,  is  not  cultivation  really  only  a  necessary  evil  ? 
For  trees,  facts  clearly  point  that  way.  For  certain  annual 
crops,  that  grow  when  the  weeds  do,  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  cultivate,  to  prevent  the  weeds  from  appropriating 
a  large  share  of  plant  food  and  moisture,  and  also  equally 


1^2  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

important  to  shade  the  earth  around  growing  plants,  and 
keep  down  evaporation.  Still,  do  we  not,  by  inverting  the 
soil  and  putting  the  humus  at  the  bottom  instead  of  the  top, 
where  nature  puts  it,  and  also  by  exposing  the  pulverized 
surface  to  the  leaching  of  heavy  rains,  which  carry  off  far 
more  soluble  plant  food  than  is  appropriated  by  the  trees, 
really  do  our  orchards  more  harm  than  good  ?  We  cultivate 
and  crop  our  lands  until,  if  no  fertilizer  is  added,  they  ulti- 
mately refuse  to  produce,  and  we  turn  them  out  as  old  fields. 
Nature  then  plants  them  with  trees,  and  not  only  grows  a 
vigorous  crop  from  year  to  year,  but  rapidly  renews  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  itself  by  depositing  vegetable  matter  on 
the  surface  where,  exposed  to  air,  heat  and  moisture,  it  is 
continually  rendering  plant  food  soluble,  and  returning  it  to 
the  storehouse  of  the  earth.  Why,  if  nature  can  rear  an 
immense  forest  growth  on  impoverished  land,  and  in  the 
course  of  time  return  it  to  us  rich,  cannot  we  grow  fruit  trees 
by  the  same  method  ?  The  leaves,  grass  clippings,  and 
annual  dying  of  the  surface  roots  of  the  sod,  leave  the 
vegetable  matter  just  where  the  elements  can,  through  its 
decomposition,  prepare  food  for  the  tree  roots,  to  supplement 
which  I  propose  an  annual  top-dressing.  And  yet,  reason- 
able and  natural  as  this  treatment  of  an  orchard  is,  men  will 
theorize  about  the  vast  excess  of  evaporation  from  a  sod  sur- 
face over  a  cultivated  one,  and  demonstrate  to  a  certainty 
how  superior  the  latter  must  be ;  but  nature  laughs  at  them, 
with  her  vigorous  and  productive  old  seedling  trees,  in  out- 
of-the-way  places,  while  everywhere  throughout  the  country, 
continually,  cultivated  trees  become  diseased  early,  fail  to 
bear  regular  crops,  and  die  young. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

Wrapping  Fruit. 

WHILE  nobody  claims  that  either  Le  Conte,  Kieffer, 
or  Garber,  the  only  successful  pears  here,  are  as 
good  in  quality  as  some  of  the  old  varieties,  still,  if 
properly  ripened,  they  are  excellent  eating,  and  both  Prof. 
Bailey,  of  Cornell,  and  the  editor  of  The  Rural  New-  Yorker 
(the  latter  the  Kieffer's  long-time  enemy)  pronounced  speci- 
mens of  Kieffer  I  sent  them  a  few  years  ago  as  almost  equal 
to  any  pear.  There  is  no  question  that  after  a  crop  or  two 
of  Le  Conte  have  been  taken  off,  and  the  potash  of  the  soil 
somewhat  exhausted,  that  the  fruit  is  liable  to  rot  more 
quickly  at  the  core,  and  also  to  deteriorate  in  quality,  as  well 
as  hang  on  less  tenaciously.  I  have  noticed  these  points 
particularly.  But  the  most  important  observation  from  ex- 
perience is,  that  if  taken  off  just  before  or  when  full  grown, 
and  packed  in  quite  tight  boxes  or  barrels,  the  quality  of  the 
fruit  is  greatly  improved.  If,  however,  it  is  picked  at  that 
stage  before  fully  developed,  and  exposed  to  the  air  or 
wrapped  in  paper,  the  fruit  not  only  shrivels  in  a  few  days, 
but  that  wrapped  in  paper  will  become  quite  tasteless.  It  is 
certain  that  besides  losing  quality,  as  noted  elsewhere, 
from  the  trees  not  being  allowed  to  form  genuine  surface 
roots,  the  California  fruits  shipped  east  are  also  greatly 
damaged  in  their  eating  qualities  by  being  picked  immature 
and  wrapped  in  paper.  When  perfectly  ripe  such  effects  do 
not  follow.  But  fruit  at  all  green,  or  only  partially  ripe,  as 
most  of  their  fruit  has  to  be  picked  to  stand  shipment, 
certainly  loses  flavor  by  the  wrapping.  I  learned  this  very 
important  point  at  a  cost  of  nearly  one  hundred  dollars  for 
paper,  that  was  bought  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  my  com- 
mission merchant  in  Chicago,  who  insisted  that  he  could  get 
twice  as  much  for  wrapped  pears  as  for  the  plain.  So  I 

(173) 


174  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

bought  the  paper,  when  about  to  ship  the  first  car  load  of 
that  phenomenal  nine  thousand  bushel  crop,  and  we  wrapped 
all  but  about  fifty  boxes,  which  were  left  unwrapped  to  test 
the  quality,  as  the  fruit  was  not  fully  mature.  On  arrival, 
and  after  ripening,  he  tasted  the  wrapped  and  those  not,  and 
at  once  telegraphed  me  to  wrap  no  more.  He  explained  by 
letter  that  the  wrapped  fruit  had  not  only  shrivelled  slightly, 
the  dry  paper  having  absorbed  the  moisture  from  the  imma- 
ture fruit,  but  was  also  quite  insipid,  while  that  in  the  fifty 
boxes  not  wrapped  was  of  excellent  quality.  The  Kieffer  is 
also  positively  damaged  in  quality  by  wrapping  if  not  per- 
fectly mature.  There  seems  to  be  something  in  a  confined 
atmosphere  that  greatly  improves  the  quality  of  both  apples 
and  pears.  We  can  all  remember  of  making,  when  boys, 
apple  "dens,"  or  holes  in  the  ground,  where,  buried  in  soil 
or  straw,  apples  would  keep  for  months,  often,  and  come  out 
with  a  most  delicious  flavor.  In  fact,  I  never  in  my  life  ate 
apples  that  tasted  like  those  from  an  apple  "den."  The 
same  holds  good  of  Kieffer  pears.  For  years  this  fruit  was 
abused  for  its  poor  quality  and  hard  and  tasteless  flesh,  by 
those  who  knew  not  how  to  ripen  it,  and  still  is  abused  by 
some  ignorant  people,  though  it  can  be  ripened  up  to  almost 
equal  Anjou  or  the  best  of  the  older  winter  varieties.  When 
the  Kieffer  was  awarded  a  very  high  premium  at  the  Cen- 
tennial of  1876,  I  read  an  account  of  it  arid  its  delicious 
flavor  as  described  by  Thomas  Meehan,  of  Germantown,  who 
was  a  neighbor  of  old  Peter  Kieffer,  and  had  often  eaten  the 
fruit  as  ripened  by  the  old  originator.  Mr.  Meehan  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  he  felt,  after  eating  one  of  old  man  Kieffer's 
pears,  like  never  eating  any  other  pear  again,  for  fear  of 
losing  the  recollection  of  its  delicious  flavor.  It  was  that 
extravagent  statement  that  induced  me  to  plant  the  Kieffer  in 
1883,  and  when  it  came  into  bearing,  like  everybody  else  who 
tries  to  ripen  it  exposed  to  the  air  or  on  shelves,  it  proved  to 
be  a  great  disappointment.  By  a  mere  accident  I  hit  upon 
what  I  am  sure  must  have  been  old  Peter's  method,  yet, 
strange  to  say,  he  died  without  telling  any  body  of  it,  though 
he  lived  long  enough  to  hear  its  quality  condemned.  When 


WRAPPING     FRUIT.  175 

once  shipping  a  lot  of  fruit  in  October,  by  oversight  a  close 
bushel  box  was  left  nailed  up  under  a  bench  in  the  packing 
house,  and  there  remained  several  weeks  before  being  dis- 
covered. On  opening,  the  fruit  was  found  to  be  a  beautiful 
yellow  and  of  delicious  quality,  showing  that  confinement  in 
its  own  atmosphere  was  the  secret  of  making  it  a  most  excel- 
lent table  fruit.  After  that  I  had  no  more  trouble  about  the 
quality  of  Kieffer  pears,  an  experience  that  has  since  been 
verified  by  hundreds  of  others.  As  the  best  methods  for  hand- 
ling and  shipping  fruits  are  well  known,  it  is  useless  for  me  to 
more  than  call  attention  to  the  absolute  necessity  for  spring 
wagons,  even  where  fruit  for  distant  shipment  is  only  to  be 
hauled  a  few  hundred  yards.  Especially  are  all  berries 
liable  to  be  jolted  and  bruised  by  a  springless  vehicle  in  a 
very  short  haul,  and  the  slightest  bruise  means  quick  decay. 
While  it  is  very  doubtful  that  much  ventilation  of  straw- 
berries in  cool  weather,  such  as  we  ship  in,  is  a  benefit,  there 
is  no  question  that  all  vegetables  that  are  at  all  liable  to  heat 
should  have  plenty  of  air,  nor  should  vegetables  or  fruits  for 
long  shipment  ever  be  washed  or  wet,  especially  strawberries. 
For  the  early  February  and  March  crop  of  the  latter  it  is  a 
serious  question  whether  a  practically  tight  package  would 
not  be  best  for  them.  In  distant  shipments  evaporation  is 
very  great,  and  the  upper  tier  of  boxes,  on  opening  the  crate, 
always  shows  a  shriveling  of  the  berries  and  loss  of  gloss. 
The  second  tier,  which  is  practically  tight,  shows  up  bright 
and  firm.  This,  however,  applies  only  to  ventilated  or  re- 
frigerator cars.  When  shipped  far,  in  a  heated  express  car, 
air  would  be  an  absolute  necessity. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Grapes. 

AS  TO  grapes,  and  the  adaptability  of  various  kinds  to 
the  different  sections  of  the  country,  it  is  certain 
that  the  practice  of  close  root-pruning  is  going  to 
make  some  radical  changes.  As  remarked  elsewhere,  the 
grape  becomes  permanently  very  surface-rooted  when  grown 
from  long-rooted  vines,  but  roots  exceedingly  deep  from  a 
close  root-pruned  one.  The  question  is,  How  far  is  this  go- 
ing to  influence  the  behavior  of  vines  in  given  localities?  As, 
for  instance,  it  did  the  old  Herbemont  on  my  former  Hitch- 
cock place.  That  vine,  taken  up  when  six  years  old,  closely 
root  and  top-pruned  and  replanted,  has  made  an  extraordi- 
nary growth,  and  is  bearing  enormous  crops  every  year.  It 
is  entirely  free  from  all  disease,  while  the  same  variety,  as 
ordinarily  planted  and  cultivated,  rots  in  the  neighborhood 
nearly  every  year.  The  general  opinion  in  South  Texas  has 
been,  that  all  the  Labrusca  and  their  hybrids  are  short-lived. 
As  all  those  grapes  bear  very  heavily,  and  are  nearly  always 
allowed  to  overbear,  may  it  not  be  that  this  and  long, 
fibrous  roots  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  trouble,  if  it  be  true  ? 
Not  caring  to  retain  any  of  them  after  a  fair  test,  and  finding 
them  unsuited  for  distant  shipment,  owing  to  early  shelling 
of  the  berries,  I  always  threw  them  out,  having  so  many 
experiments  on  hand.  Thus  I  never  kept  any  of  the  La- 
brusca over  four  or  five  years.  My  tests  of  the  American 
varieties  included  over  fifty  of  the  latest  and  most  prominent, 
and  out  of  the  whole  list,  I  would  unhesitatingly  select  the 
Lindley  for  South  Texas,  as  the  very  best  early  light-red 
grape,  though  it  does  not  set  its  fruit  well  unless  planted 
near  or  alternated  in  rows  with  a  staminate  variety,  such  as 
the  Agawam  or  Salem.  The  two  latter  are  by  far  the  largest 
and  best  dark-red  grapes,  while  Wilder  easily  stands  at  the 

(176) 


GRAPES.  177 

head  of  the  blacks.  The  Niagara  is  the  very  best  white  or 
golden  grape,  boing  of  larger  size  and  more  productive  than 
Moore's  Diamond,  as  well  as  a  much  stronger  grower.  These 
are  the  cream  of  all  the  American  grapes,  as  table  grapes,  for 
South  Texas.  Of  course,  in  the  Gulf  Coast  and  southwest- 
ern part  of  Texas,  the  old  Herbemont  and  Lenoir  or  Black 
Spanish  are  the  standard  wine  and  arbor  grapes,  though  they 
are  of  little  value  for  market.  But  while  all  the  grapes  recom- 
mended above  are  excellent  for  home  use  and  markets  that  can 
be  reached  in  one  day  or  less,  it  would  be  useless  to  plant 
them  or  any  other  American  grape  largely  for  more  distant 
shipment.  They  will  all  shell  off,  or  drop  from  the  bunch,  in 
our  hot  summer  weather,  after  being  gathered,  at  the  end  o£ 
that  time.  After  July  the  northern  and  California  grapes 
take  our  markets,  and  prices  rule  very  low.  While  some  of 
the  Munson  and  other  American  grapes  will  hang  quite  late 
in  the  summer,  it  scarcely  pays  to  leave  them,  on  account  of 
depredations  by  the  birds,  unless  constantly  watched.  For 
wine  growing,  except  on  a  small  scale  for  local  markets,  we 
can  never  compete  with  California,  as  grapes  are  grown  more 
cheaply  there  than  here.  But  while  most  of  the  Vinifera  are 
unsuited  to  Texas,  except  the  southwestern  portion,  around 
Beeville  and  near  the  coast,  where  they  are  proving  very  suc- 
cessful, it  is  highly  probable  that  the  Chasselas  de  Fontaine- 
bleu  will  also  prove  at  home  in  the  eastern  coast  district, 
several  vines  being  now  in  full  bearing  on  Galveston  Island. 

Grapes  mature  very  early  in  the  Southwest,  the  Chasselas 
coming  in  about  the  5th  of  June,  and  in  Galveston  county  but 
a  very  short  time  afterwards.  Of  course,  all  vines  should 
be  closely  root-pruned,  set  in  as  small  a  hole  as  practicable, 
and  well  rammed.  In  the  matter  of  training,  they  are  almost 
exclusively  adopting  the  California  low  head,  no  trellis, 
system,  in  Southwest  Texas,  and  the  same  plan  would 
answer  well  for  the  Chasselas  in  the  eastern  coast  region. 
But  all  the  American  grapes  seem  to  do  better  on  somewhat 
longer  pruning,  though  I  know  of  vines  that  have  given  good 
crops  on  the  above  plan.  As  a  rule,  perhaps,  the  renewal 
system  of  several  new  canes,  about  three  feet  long  for  vines 
12— Hort. 


178  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

in  full  bearing,  trained  fan-shape  to  a  trellis  of  three  wires, 
will  furnish  all  the  fruit  that  any  vine  should  carry.  I  would 
earnestly  caution  against  overbearing  all  through  the  life  of  a 
grape  vine,  and  especially  of  young  ones  the  first  few 
years.  This  is  the  cause  of  the  failure  and  early  death  of 
nine  out  of  ten  vines  that  break  down.  One  good  bunch  to  a 
shoot  is  all  that  should  be  left  until  the  vines  get  strong. 

As  to  fertilizer,  bone  and  potash  will  supply  all  the  food  a 
vine  requires,  and  potash  is  especially  important  for  their 
health.  Where  cotton-seed  hull  ashes  or  plenty  of  wood  ashes 
can  be  had,  there  is  nothing  better.  As  to  insects,  the 
most  serious  enemy  to  the  grape  in  the  South  is  the  leaf 
roller;  and  while  he  never  attacks  the  smooth,  thin  leaves  of 
the  Vinifera,  he  rarely  allows  the  woolly  leaves  of  the 
Labrusca  or  its  hybrids  to  escape.  One  spraying  with  Paris 
green  and  a  little  lime,  at  the  rate  of  one  pound  of  the  green 
to  one  hundred  or  even  one  hundred  and  fifty  gallons  of  lime 
water,  when  the  berries  are  half  grown,  will  be  washed  off 
before  the  fruit  ripens,  but  will  protect  entirely  until 
the  fruit  has  been  sold,  when  another  will  carry  the 
vines  through  the  summer.  The  birds  are  the  only  other 
enemy,  and  while  there  are  not  so  many  in  Southwest  Texas, 
they  are  exceedingly  destructive  everywhere  else  throughout 
the  South.  The  very  best  remedy  is  to  pepper  them  with  peas 
from  a  gun,  or  very  fine  shot  at  long  range,  for  a  few  days, 
when  the  fruit  begins  to  ripen.  It  is  astonishing  how  quickly 
they  will  communicate  the  fact  when  they  are  struck.  Dead 
birds,  like  dead  men,  tell  no  tales,  but  lives  ones  are  quick  to 
do  it.  However,  it  is  highly  probable  that  birds  attack 
grapes  much  oftener  to  quench  their  thirst  than  to  obtain  food, 
and  if  shallow  vessels  of  water  are  placed  at  intervals 
throughout  the  vineyard,  the  loss  of  fruit  will  be  very  small. 

In  marketing  the  fruit,  it  should  always  be  gathered  in 
shallow  boxes,  with  cleats  on  the  ends  for  handles,  so  they 
can  be  piled  up  on  each  other,  in  hauling  to  the  packing 
house.  There  it  should  remain  over  until  the  next  day,  to 
allow  the  stems  to  wilt,  so  that  the  bunches  will  lose  their 
rigidity  and  pack  more  closely  without  bruising.  All  broken, 


GRAPES.  179 

green  or  decayed  berries  should  be  clipped  from  the  bunches 
with  sharp-pointed  grape  scissors.  The  5-  and  g^pound  bas- 
kets are  the  most  common  packages,  but  they  are  not  only 
more  inconvenient  for  packing  in  the  car,  but  are  too  close 
for  the  far  South,  in  hot  weather.  The  square  box  or  crate, 
with  four  5-pound  baskets,  such  as  seems  to  be  in  general  use 
in  California,  is  far  better,  and  they  should  be  well  filled,  so 
the  cover  will  fit  tightly,  to  prevent  shaking.  The  catalogues 
will  furnish  a  very  extensive  list  for  those  who  want  variety, 
even  though  inferior  grapes. 

But  there  is  one  other  grand  but  neglected  old  grape  for 
home  use,  both  for  the  table  and  for  wine.  I  allude  to  the 
Scuppernong,  which,  while  it  grows  everywhere  like  a  weed, 
has  failed  hitherto  to  set  its  fruit.  The  cause  is  now  very 
plain.  Simply  the  old  trouble  of  pistillate  blooms.  Mr.  S. 
N.  Richardson,  of  Alvin,  tells  me  that  he  has  tried  it,  and 
named  a  party  in  Columbia  who  had  the  same  experience  on 
a  large  scale.  If  the  common  male  Muscadine,  which  blooms 
just  when  the  Scuppermong  does,  is  planted  close  by,  instead 
of  dropping  its  fruit,  as  it  always  does,  the  latter  will  bear 
every  year,  and  most  profusely.  This  is  a  very  important 
fact,  for  this  famous  old  southern  vine,  if  trellised,  will  cover 
an  acre,  and  asks  no  other  favors  than  a  good  annual  dress-  . 
ing  of  potash  in  some  form,  and  then  to  have  its  roots  let 
alone.  For  chicken  yard,  around  back  doors,  or  wherever 
shade  is  desired,  it  will  not  only  answer  that  useful  purpose, 
but  also  bear  loads  of  delicious  grapes  for  wine  or  table  use. 

As  to  distance  for  planting,  eight  feet  each  way  between 
the  Labrusca  varieties  will  be  sufficient,  but  twelve  feet  or 
more  is  best  for  the  Herbemont  and  Lenoir  in  the  immediate 
coast  country.  Around  San  Antonio  and  in  Southwest 
Texas,  however,  they  succeed  well  stump-pruned,  like  the 
Vinifera  in  California,  but  the  climate  is  dryer  in  that  portion 
of  Texas,  and  vines  are  less  subject  to  rot.  While  clean 
cultivation  is  now  the  rule,  I  propose  planting  a  small  vine- 
yard, as  an  experiment,  with  twelve  feet  between  rows  and 
vines  four  feet  in  the  rows.  After  cultivating  for  a  year  very 
shallow,  they  will  be  put  down  to  grass  and  mowed  often 


l8o  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

enough  to  keep  it  short,  and  surface  roots  will  not  be  broken 
again.  There  are  many  isolated  vines  thus  treated  that  are 
bearing  heavy  annual  crops  with  no  spraying,  while  plowed 
and  cultivated  vines  rot  every  year.  In  fertilizing,  beware  of 
cotton-seed  meal  or  other  manures  rich  in  ammonia,  as  that 
element  is  very  apt  to  produce  rot  in  the  fruit.  A  good 
annual  dressing  of  some  form  of  potash  and  phosphoric  acid 
will  make  vigorous  vines  and  plenty  of  fruit. 

As  to  spraying,  while  some  have  not  found  any  benefit 
from  it  on  fruit  trees,  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  most  sections 
of  the  country  it  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  sound  grapes, 
and  while  it  will  not  prevent  blight  on  the  pear,  it  does  add 
greatly  to  the  appearance  of  the  fruit. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

The  Apple. 

HAVING  spent  the  last  thirty  years  of  my  life  on  the  im- 
mediate Gulf  coast,  my  experience  with  apples  is  nec- 
essarily limited,  and  as  a  book  on  horticulture  would 
not  be  complete  without  a  notice  of  this  best  of  all  fruits,  I 
append  on  that  subject  a  most  excellent  article  from  the 
Southern  States,  by  Prof.  M.  B.  Hilliard,  of  the  Louisiana  Ex- 
periment Station.  He  is  known  as  an  authority  on  horticul- 
ture in  the  far  South,  and  his  suggestions  are  well  worth  the 
careful  attention  of  all  fruit  growers.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  apple  as  a  money  maker  has  been  very  greatly  overlooked 
in  the  southern  states,  even  when  grown  from  long-rooted 
trees,  which  in  our  hot  climate  tends  greatly  to  dwarf  them, 
by  compelling  them  to  take  on  a  surface  system  of  roots,  in- 
stead of  penetrating  deeply,  which  they  would  do  if  their 
roots  were  closely  pruned.  That  this  is  true  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  two  very  large  apple  trees  now  growing  near  Hitch- 
cock, Galveston  Co.,  on  Mr.  H.  Perthuis'  old  place.  Those 
trees  were  a  great  puzzle  for  several  years,  and  induced  me 
to  plant  two  hundred  apple  trees  at  the  same  time  I  planted 
my  pear  orchard.  While  that  variety  is  not  suited  to  this 
locality,  as  far  as  productiveness  is  concerned  (nor  is  it  prob- 
able that  any  apple  would  pay  on  the  Gulf  coast),  still  those 
two  trees  clearly  show  that  if  planted  right,  the  apple  will 
make  a  large  tree  even  here.  Those  two  trees  are  now  about 
twenty  years  old,  and  their  history,  as  given  by  Mr.  Perthuis, 
is  as  follows  : 

During  a  visit  to  Houston  he  saw  a  thrifty  young  apple 
tree  in  the  yard  of  a  friend,  and  when  about  to  return  he  cut 
off  a  shoot  with  the  intention  of  grafting  several  quince  trees 
on  his  place  at  Hitchcock.  On  reaching  home  he  cut  the 
shoot  in  half  and  stuck  the  two  pieces  into  the  ground  for  a 

(181) 


l82  THE    NEW    HORTICULTURE. 

few  days.  Being  busy,  they  remained  there  several  weeks, 
and  when  he  finally  took  them  up  for  grafting,  he  was  sur- 
prised to  find  little  roots  just  starting  from  the  lower  ends. 
He  at  once  set  them  out  about  twenty  feet  apart,  where  they 
took  root,  made  a  rapid  growth,  and  long  ago  their  branches 
met,  the  bodies  near  the  ground  being  over  one  foot  in  diam- 
eter. While  not  very  productive,  owing  to  the  variety  not 
being  adapted  this  far  South,  these  trees  have  been  models 
of  health  and  vigor,  though  for  many  years  they  have  stood 
in  the  sod.  The  two  hundred  trees  I  was  induced  to  plant 
from  the  conduct  of  these  two  were  set  with  very  long  roots, 
and  after  growing  moderately  well  for  several  years,  finally 
assumed  such  a  dwarf  habit,  though  given  the  best  of  culture 
and,  being  between  rows  of  pear  trees,  that  they  were  dug  up 
and  thrown  out.  I  had  then  found  out  the  value  of  root- 
pruning,  and  was  not  surprised  to  see  perfectly  flat,  lateral 
and  surface  root  systems  on  them  all,  not  one  having  struck  a 
single  tap-root.  That  is  plainly  the  cause  of  the  dwarf  habit 
all  apple  trees  assume  in  the  far  South,  and  it  is  possible  that 
some  of  the  southern  winter  varieties  named  in  Prof.  Mil- 
liard's excellent  article  may  be  adapted  even  here,  if  closely 
root  pruned  when  planted.  This  is  one  fruit,  however,  that 
should  be  planted  in  the  valleys  all  over  Texas  and  the  South. 
It  blooms  late,  is  never  caught  by  frost,  and,  like  the  pear, 
loves  a  moist  location.  It  is  hard  to  hurt  an  apple  tree  with 
water,  and  its  general  failure  to  do  well  in  the  far  South  is 
due,  next  to  leaving  long  roots,  more  to  planting  on  high, 
dry  locations  than  anything  else.  In  the  valley  near  the 
Hannah  Springs,  at  Lampasas,  are  a  dozen  or  more  thrifty 
apple  trees,  planted  nobody  knows  just  when,  and  being  on 
the  Springs  property,  were  turned  out  on  the  common  fifteen 
years  ago.  They  have  never  failed  a  single  crop  during  that 
time,  as  I  was  informed  by  a  resident  who  had  known  of 
them  that  long,  and  when  I  saw  them  recently,  every  tree 
was  overloaded,  but  looking  fresh  and  green.  The  remark- 
able point  about  those  trees  was  that  not  a  sign  of  a  worm  or 
insect  could  be  found  upon  either  fruit  or  leaves.  Unfortu- 
nately, while  there  are  plainly  six  varieties,  nobody  knows 


THE     APPLE.  183 

what  they  are,  as  the  fruit  is  never  allowed  to  get  more  than 
half  grown  before  it  is  carried  off  by  the  public.  If  the 
suitability  of  the  valleys  of  the  interior  of  Texas  for  apple 
culture  is  to  be  judged  by  the  way  those  trees  have  done  for 
many  years,  certainly  the  fruit-growers  of  our  state  are  mak- 
ing a  great  mistake  in  neglecting  to  plant  extensive  orchards 
of  this  staple  and  most  profitable  of  all  fruits  on  some  of  the 
rich  bottom  lands  now  given  entirely  to  corn  and  cotton. 

But  whatever  our  southern  brethren  do,  the  fruit-growers 
of  the  apple  states  will  make  no  mistake  to  begin  now  to  set 
close  root-pruned  apple  trees.  The  orchards  of  the  last  de- 
cade or  more  have  all  been  planted  with  large,  long-rooted 
trees,  and  no  amount  of  cultivation  or  care  will  prolong  their 
usefulness  over  twelve  or  fifteen  years.  It  takes  but  a  few 
full  crops  to  break  down  trees  the  bulk  of  whose  roots  are  in 
the  upper  twelve  inches  of  the  soil,  and  the  man  who  selects 
the  best  varieties  now,  root-prunes  closely,  plants  in  small 
holes,  rams  tight,  cultivates  well  for  a  few  years,  and  then 
puts  down  to  Bermuda,  blue  grass,  or  other  sod,  and  pastures 
or  mows  it,  not  forgetting  to  top-dress  well  around  the  trees 
each  year  with  some  good  fertilizer,  will,  if  his  trees  are  prop- 
agated from  productive,  bearing  ones,  begin  in  four  or  five 
years  to  reap  a  rich  harvest,  and  have  an  orchard  that  will 
long  outlive  him,  and  be  the  safest  legacy  he  can  leave  his 
children.  As  to  all  the  talk  about  the  old,  choice  varieties  of 
winter  apples  running  out,  it  may  be  set  down  as  talk  and 
nothing  else.  They  have  been  run  out  by  the  persistent 
persecution  they  have  been  subjected  to,  in  the  form  of  trees 
used,  and  the  continual  cutting  of  their  roots  with  the  plow, 
together  with  overbearing.  There  is  not  to-day  an  apple  in 
the  country  that,  if  put  upon  a  vigorous,  healthy,  close  root- 
pruned  stock,  will  not  bear  as  fine  fruit  as  it  did  the  first 
crop  it  ever  bore,  provided  its  roots  are  let  alone  when  the 
tree  begins  to  bear. 

I  would  call  attention,  in  the  following  interesting  article, 
to  a  prophecy  as  to  the  South,  which  will  hold  equally  good 
for  all  sections,  wherein  this  eminent  horticulturist  takes  the 
same  views  expressed  in  this  volume  :  "And  in  less  than  a 


184  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

quarter  of   a   century  you   will  find  large  droves  of   hogs   in 
orchards  sodded  with  Kentucky  blue  grass." 

M.  B.  MILLIARD  in  Southern  States.~\ 

A  large  apple  orchard  is  something  very  rare  in  the  far  South,  at 
least  within  the  zone  of  my  observations.  Of  course,  my  area  of 
observation  did  not  cover  the  entire  South,  and  I  have  not  been  much 
of  a  traveler  for  the  past  fifteen  years;  but,  while  there  is  a  tendency 
to  enlarge,  or,  rather,  to  begin  apple  raising,  it  is  a  very  recent  thing, 
very  limited  in  its  belt,  and  mostly  confined  to  the  summer  varieties. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  reason  for  the  insignificance  of  apple 
raising  South.  The  fruit  raising  furore  communicated  to  the  South 
through  the  small  fruits  and  plums  principally.  The  last  two  varie- 
ties bear  earlier  than  the  apple  and  outsell  it.  The  small  fruits  pay 
well,  yield  well,  and  bear  at  once,  so  to  speak.  Then  the  apple  of 
the  South  (the  early  varieties)  finds  all  sorts  of  competition  from  the 
other  fruits  and  from  southern  and  eastern  peaches  and  small  fruits — 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Michigan  ;  raspberries,  strawberries,  black- 
berries and  peaches  from  Delaware  to  a  long  way  South.  For  the 
winter  apples  of  the  South  there  is  found  such  a  competitor  in  the 
whole  apple  belt  of  this  continent  that  the  South  may  be  said,  at 
this  time  to  be  not  "  in  it,"  as  to  raising  winter  apples,  at  all. 

Another  reason  why  the  South  is  in  the  business  of  raising  winter 
(or  fall)  varieties  of  apples  in  the  small  way  now  marking  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs,  is  that  the  favorite  varieties  of  northern  apples  will 
not  succeed  South,  except  with  few  exceptions.  The  writer  well  re- 
members how,  when  a  young  man,  he  saw  the  delicious  and  superb 
winter  apples  (that  succeed  so  well  in  New  York,  New  England  and 
Michigan)  on  exhibition  at  an  agricultural  fair  in  Dover,  Del.  The 
agent  sold  trees  at  a  great  pace,  no  doubt.  But  none  of  the  apples 
succeeded  in  Delaware  ;  such  choice  varieties  as  Baldwin,  Spitzen- 
berg,  Rhode  Island  Greening,  Seek-no-Further  and  others.  The 
above  experiment  in  Delaware  is  a  type  of  what  the  South  has  expe- 
rienced with  regard  to  winter  apples,  introduced  from  the  North,  that 
have  failed  South.  The  tree  pedlar,  with  his  highly-colored  plates, 
his  smooth  tongue,  and  his  shameless  deception,  for  all  these 
years  has  talked  the  South  into  buying  varieties  of  apples  that  are 
failures  South.  If  these  northern  nurserymen  would  propagate  va- 
rieties of  apples  that  would  succeed  South,  and  sell  them  here,  there 
would  not  be  so  much  ground  for  criticism.  But  their  present  plan 
is  as  much  a  fraud  as  it  would  be  for  southern  nurserymen  to  go 
North  and  East  and  sell  to  horticulturists  there  varieties  of  the  fig  or 
orange,  by  assuring  purchasers  that  these  were  hardy  and  would  suc- 
ceed there.  If  the  northern  horticulturists  are  less  gullible  than 
those  South,  that  does  not  alter  the  principle. 

Then,  undoubtedly,  this  prevalent  disfavor  of  the  winter  apple 
iSouth  interferes  much  with  an  acquisition  or  attempt  at  production 
of  new  varieties.  If  a  person  South  should  discover  a  new  very 
early  peach,  that  carried  well  and  was  fine  in  size  and  color,  it  would 
be  a  fortune  to  him.  The  same  principle  would  apply  to  a  new 


THE     APPLE.  185 

strawberry,  in  large  measure  also  to  a  cherry,  But  to  find  a  new 
and  great  variety  of  winter  apple  would  be  worth  nothing,  because 
there  would  be  no  demand  for  it ;  as  witness  the  amazing  inconsider- 
ation  with  which  the  South  treated  the  Shannon  apple,  that  wonder 
of  Arkansas,  which  took  the  premium  over  all  competitors  at  the 
Cotton  Centennial  here  in  New  Orleans,  1884-85.  I  remember  well 
with  what  exultation  I  hailed  the  victory,  and  said  :  "Now,  we  shall 
have  a  new  era  in  apples.  We  shall  soon  see  the  Shannon  on  sale 
here  in  New  Orleans,  and  measurably  disuse  this  wretched  but  pop- 
ular Ben  Davis,  and  such.''  And  yet  I  don't  suppose  you  could  find 
a  barrel  of  Shannons  on  sale  anywhere  in  any  city  of  the  South  ; 
and  I  doubt  if  one  southern  nurseryman  in  a  hundred  propagates  it, 
or  if  he  does,  sells  any  but  the  fewest  number  of  the  trees.  And 
another  illustration  of  the  comparative  disregard  is  the  Johnson,  a 
seedling  originating  in  Mississippi,  with  which  Dr.  H.  E.  McKay,  of 
Madison  Station,  Miss,  (the  Strawberry  King,  as  he  is  designated), 
took  the  premium  as  the  best  new  fall  apple  at  the  same  great  exposi- 
tion just  mentioned,  where  the  Shannon  took  its  premium.  Had  two 
such  apples  been  discovered  North  or  West,  the  whole  horticultural 
world  would  have  been  agog,  and  millions  of  trees  would  have  been 
sold  in  a  very  few  years.  I  remember,  in  Delaware,  we  horticultur- 
ists thought  we  were  getting  the  Hale's  Early  peach  very  cheap  at 
one  dollar  a  tree,  one  year  old.  Look,  too,  at  the  Idaho  pear,  dis- 
covered a  few  years  ago,  and  its  price. 

I  have  mentioned  the  Shannon  and  Johnson  apples  only  by  way 
of  illustration.  Doubtless  there  are  many  others  very  good.  I  would 
undertake  to  find  on  the  southern  branch  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road, in  Mississippi  and  Tennesse,  and  in  Northwest  Louisiana,  at 
least  half  a  dozen  new  varieties  of  fall  and  winter  apples — seedlings 
that  constitute  great  accessions  to  the  really  large  list  of  these  apples 
that  are  hardly  known  to  anyone,  unpropagated  and  unappreciated; 
I  hardly  ever  fail  to  discover  something  new  in  any  trip  I  make, 
because  I  keep  my  eyes  open.  Only  a  few  years  ago  I  discovered 
two  seedling  pears  in  Louisiana,  both  fine,  one  of  which,  if  propa- 
gated, would  be  the  greatest  accession  to  the  varieties  of  that  fruit 
within  the  last  twenty-five  years.  But  I  was  not  situated  to  push  it, 
and  did  not  care  to  "  give  it  away."  Why  the  Secretary  of  Agricul- 
ture does  not  see  his  way  clear  to  put  some  one  in  the  field  to  discover 
new  varieties  of  fruit  South  is  a  mystery.  Not  but  that  something 
has  been  done,  but  there  is  such  a  broad,  rich  field  totally  unex- 
plored. The  South,  for  illustration,  among  her  most  foreknowing 
horticulturists,  is  yearning  to  propagate  the  cherry.  And  I  have  been 
hunting  it  for  twenty-five  years,  and  have  found  much  which  I  hope 
to  give  to  the  readers  of  the  Southern  States.  But  why  should  this  be 
left  in  such  a  disregarded  condition  ? 

Undoubtedly  the  South  at  large  could  add  scores,  if  not  hundreds, 
of  varieties  of  choice  fall  and  winter  apples  to  the  list  in  propagation, 
if  there  were  a  demand.  The  question  is,  Will  there  ever  be  a  de- 
mand ?  or,  rather,  the  question  is,  Will  the  South  ever  meet  the 
demand  ?  For  the  South  consumes  really  an  immense  quantity  of 


l86  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

northern  apples.  They  sell,  generally,  higher  in  the  South  than 
oranges.  You  can  buy  choice  oranges  at  the  fruit  stands  in  New 
Orleans  at  twenty-five  cents  per  dozen,  when  you  must  pay  fifty  or 
sixty  cents  for  a  like  number  of  choice  Newtown  Pippins,  Bellflower, 
or  Maiden's  Blush.  And  even  the  Ben  Davis,  here  as  everywhere  the 
popular  variety,  outsells  choice  oranges. 

The  winter  apple,  North  and  West,  is  a  staple  ;  and  I  have  ob- 
served that  in  Illinois  lands  where  the  apple  was  successful,  and  the 
farms  contained  good  apple  orchards,  sold  for  far  more  money  than 
ordinary  farming  lands.  The  home  consumption  of  the  fruit,  the 
demand  for  export  to  Europe,  and  the  southern  demand,  make  the 
business  profitable,  and  many  new  orchards  are  being  planted. 

But  the  South  has  so  many  new  things  pressing  her  attention  for 
adoption,  that  raising  winter  apples  has  never  come  home  to  the  con- 
sideration of  her  horticulturists.  We  buy  northern  vinegar  made  of 
chemicals  ;  northern  pickles  preserved  in  it.  We  have  been  buying 
our  pork  packed  from  hogs  raised  largely  in  their  orchards  ;  we  buy 
their  cider  and  champagne  cider,  and  we  buy  their  apples.  But  it  is 
quite  certain  that  the  immense  number  of  northern  and  western 
emigrants  who  are  moving  from  their  homes  to  various  places 
South  will  not  be  content  to  go  without  apples,  when  they  find  they 
can  raise  as  good  here  as  in  their  old  homes,  and  even  better,  as  to 
many  varieties.  And  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  you  will 
find  large  droves  of  hogs  in  orchards  sodded  with  Kentucky  blue 
grass  ;  the  orchards  the  planting  of  these  northern  and  western 
emigrants.  And  there  will  be  plenty  of  home-made  apple  cider  and 
home-made  cider  vinegar,  and  pickle  factories  and  "apple  butter" 
will  abound,  and  the  ever-present  and  dyspeptic  pie.  And,  like  as 
not,  Newtown  Pippins  will  be  going  from  Charlestown,  S.  C.,  and 
Savannah,  Ga.,  to  Europe,  and  the  first  or  early  ripe  to  New  York, 
Boston,  Philadelphia  and  Chicago  ;  for  I  firmly  believe  that  not  only 
Piedmont,  Va.,  but  the  mountains  of  North  and  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  East  Tennessee  and  Alabama  can  raise  that  celebrated 
apple.  It  is  a  very  shrewd  bit  of  advertising  to  call  it  the  Albemarle 
Pippin  in  Virginia,  and  thus  commend  it  to  the  world  as  peculiar  in 
merit  in  that  locality.  Georgia  is  well  playing  the  same  game  with 
the  Elberta  peach,  and  Crystal  Springs,  Miss.,  with  her  tomatoes,  as 
North  Carolina  had  her  "golden  belt"  for  her  bright  tobacco,  and 
New  Jersey,  fifty  years  ago,  for  her  peaches,  and  Herkimer  county, 
N.  Y.,  for  her  cheese,  and  Orange  county,  N.  Y. ,  for  her  "  Goshen" 
butter.  And  I  am  happy  to  know  how  the  Albemarle  Pippin  was 
exempted  by  England  from  the  tariff  imposed  on  apples,  by  special 
act  of  Parliament,  and  admitted  duty  free  on  account  of  the  superior 
excellence  of  that  fruit. 

I  have  been  greatly  impressed  with  the  merits  of  Mr.  James 
Blakey's  article  in  the  Southern  States -Im  August,  1894,  on  the 
"Fruit  Industry  of  Piedmont,  Virginia."  It  is  particularly  valuable 
in  the  information  conveyed  to  the  practical  horticulturist,  as  to 
what  varieties  of  apples  are  successful  there.  One  of  the  most 
dispiriting  effects  of  experimenting  in  fruit  culture  is  in  the  losses  in 
time  and  money  of  fruitless  experiment. 


THE     APPLE.  187 

Another  point  of  the  utmost  import  is  that  it  demonstrates  that 
there  is  a  field  for  the  southern  apple,  which  is  one  of  the  aims  of  this 
article  to  show.  I  firmly  believe  that  the  first  yield,  or  early  part  of 
the  crop,  of  the  southern  apple  may  find  in  any  year  something  of  a 
market  North  and  West,  and  in  failure  of  the  apple  crop  there  a  con- 
siderable market,  and  that  all  the  time  the  South  will  furnish  a 
market  for  southern  raised  fall  and  winter  apples  and  largely  sup- 
plant the  apples  of  these  seasons  raised  North  and  West,  and  now 
consumed  so  largely  South.  I  have  more  than  conjecture  for  this, 
because  some  years  ago,  while  on  a  tour  of  investigation  in  the 
mountains  of  North  and  South  Carolina,  I  found  luscious  home- 
raised  apples  selling  everywhere,  and,  my  impression  is,  to  the 
almost  (if  not  altogether)  exclusion  of  northern  apples. 

As  to  summer  apples  South,  one  may  say  that  almost  everywhere 
the  favorite  northern  varieties  do  well.  Certainly  as  low  as  (if  not 
below)  latitude  31  degrees,  except,  perhaps,  Western  Texas.  For 
some  inexplicable  reason,  some  varieties  that  do  well  in  one  locality 
seem  not  to  do  at  all  in  other  places  where  they  might  be  expected  to 
succeed.  Thus  you  will  find,  for  illustration,  the  Red  Astrachan, 
Summer  Queen,  Early  Harvest  and  Red  June  highly  commended 
where  the  Yellow  June  or  Early  Strawberry  are  not. 

In  the  year  1873,  Dr.  H.  A.  Swayse,  D.  Redmond  and  myself 
were  sent  as  delegates  from  the  Louisiana  Fruit-Growers'  Associa- 
tion to  the  quarter-centennial  meeting  of  the  American  Pomological 
Society,  held  at  Boston,  Mass.,  in  September.  There  we  made  a 
report  of  the  fruits  adapted  to  what  we  deemed  the  association  or  its 
territory.  It  is  not  necessary  to  inform  the  older  horticulturists  of 
the  country  who  Messrs.  Swayse  and  Redmond  were.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  they  were  practical  men,  and  had  a  national  reputation. 
At  that  date  we  made  this  report  as  to  apples  :  "We  would  recom- 
mend Early  Harvest,  Red  Astrachan,  Carolina  Red  June,  Primate, 
Garretson's  Early,  Yellow  June,  Early  Strawberry,  Bevan,  Golden 
Sweet,  American  Summer  Pearmain,  Rhodes'  Orange,  Bruce's 
Summer,  Yellow  Horse,  Cane  Creek  Sweet,  Bachelor,  Taunton, 
Hoover,  and  Carter." 

After  years  of  investigation,  over  enlarged  territory,  I  added  to 
these  a  list  in  my  book  (  "The  New  South,"  Manufacturer's  Record, 
1887,)  the  following  list,  found  on  page  281:  "Summer — Striped 
June,  Sweet  Bough,  Early  Red  Margaret,  Hames,  Carolina  Watson, 
Family,  Julian,  Aromatic  Cheese,  Stanley's  Seedling.  Autumn — 
Bonum,  Yopp's  Favorite,  Pennsylvania  Cider,  Tuscaloosa  Seedling, 
Mamma,  Philippi,  Lawren's  Greening,  Carter's  Blue,  Buncombe, 
Junaluskee,  Maverick  Sweet,  Yates,  Ben  Davis,  Disharoon,  Carolina 
Greening.  Winter — Ferdinand,  Cannon,  Pearmain,  Oconee  Green- 
ing, Moultries,  Nickajack,  Hockett  Sweet,  Stevenson's  Winter, 
Holly,  Pryor's  Red,  Stansil.  Shockley,  Romanite,  Santa,  Limbertwig. 
Cider  apples— Dean  Crab,  Hewes'  Virginia  Crab." 

Last  summer  I  spent  quite  a  while  on  the  southern  branch  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  in  the  great  fruit  and  vegetable  centers  of 
Crystal  Springs,  Terry,  Madison,  et  al.  There  I  got  much  informa- 


l88  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

tion  and  had  many  notes  on  the  apple,  which  I  unfortunately  can  not 
now  find.  I  find  allusions  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Day,  a  large  fruit-grower, 
to  the  Buckingham,  a  seedling  brought  by  him  from  Anna,  111.;  a 
large,  flat,  red  apple,  yellow  fleshed  ;  also  the  Benoni  (a  summer 
variety,  red  striped),  introduced  by  him,  bearing  at  three  years  old 
from  the  bud.  But  of  all  the  surprising  information  I  got  on  apples 
was  that  from  Doctor  McKay,  the  "Strawberry  King,"  already  men- 
tioned. He  told  me  that  the  Russet  family,  in  his  latitude,  Madi- 
son, Miss.,  succeeds  better  than  in  latitude  40,  especially  the  Rox- 
bury  Russet.  I  confess  to  having  been  amazed  at  this,  and  it  opens 
a  field  to  the  South  that  surely  some  very  considerable  number  of 
apple  raisers  will  occupy  ere  long.  Possibly  it  may  not  be  news  to 
some  southern  apple  raisers,  but  it  will  be  to  a  great  many.  When 
it  becomes  known  generally  that  the  South  can  raise  superb  Newton 
Pippins  and  Roxbury  Russets,  one  hardly  knows  what  better  can  be 
said. 

As  to  the  Ben  Davis  in  parts  of  Mississippi  (likely  elsewhere), 
such  superb  apples  can  be  raised  that  the  average  Ben  Davis  bears 
no  comparison  with  it.  Here,  too,  is  a  field,  and  the  people  who 
plant  large  orchards  of  this  variety  will  take  time  by  the  forelock 
and  do  a  smart  thing.  It  is  the  apple  of  great  demand  everywhere, 
and  particularly  South.  It  will  be  a  good  deal  earlier  here  than 
North  and  West. 

The  Red  Astrachan,  South,  is  far  superior  to  the  fruit  in  any 
other  location  I  have  seen. 

A  very  choice  apple  belt  is  in  the  clays  of  Northwest  Louisiana. 
And  part  of  Arkansas  now  is  effectively  advertised  as  "The  Land  of 
the  Big  Red  Apple." 

Of  course,  I  have  omitted  a  good  many  varieties  of  apples  that 
are  successful  in  many  places  South,  and  I  have  named  varieties  that 
may  not  succeed  in  a  number  of  localities.  I  have  aimed  mainly  to 
show  that  the  South  is  naturally  a  fine  apple  country,  and  that  there 
is  a  great  future  for  it.  The  next  quarter  of  a  century  will  teem  with 
revelations  as  to  the  production  of  this  fruit  in  the  South. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

The  Pear. 

pear  having  now  established  itself  as  the  leading 
;  fruit  of  the  Gulf  coast,  except  that  portion  devoted  to 
the  orange,  and  its  general  management  having  been 
so  fully  given  in  horticultural  journals,  as  well  as  books,  little 
remains  to  be  said,  except  to  mention  the  varieties  best  suited 
to  the  far  South.  And  first,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the 
experience  of  the  last  few  years  has  quite  definitely  settled 
the  question  as  to  the  blight  ever  becoming  a  cause  for  alarm 
here,  if  orchards  are  allowed  to  take  their  natural  rest  during 
the  winter.  That  bearing  orchards  should  be  neither  plowed, 
fertilized  nor  pruned  at  that  time  is  certain.  There  is 
scarcely  a  doubt  that  trees  thus  treated  will  remain  perma- 
nently healthy  if  not  allowed  to  greatly  overbear.  It  is  true 
that  all  the  bearing  orchards  have  been  grown  from  more  or 
less  long-rooted  trees,  but  the  native  vigor  of  the  Chinese 
pears  is  so  great,  and  the  water  level  so  near  the  surface, 
that  the  natural  motion  of  the  sap  is  likely  always  to  be  main- 
tained during  the  growing  season.  This  is  shown  plainly 
from  the  fact  that  the  leaves  remain  fresh  and  green  on  the 
trees  until  December.  It  is  to  this  fact  that  this  section  owes 
its  remarkable  exemption  from  blight  ;  for  if  the  trees  are  not 
stimulated  during  winter,  the  sap  will  remain  dormant  until 
the  proper  time  for  growth  in  spring.  As  to  varieties  for  the 
Gulf  coast  region,  it  may  be  well  to  repeat  that  the  experi- 
ence of  thirty  years  has  shown  that  none  of  the  old  standard 
American  or  European  varieties  can  be  depended  on  to  pro- 
duce a  paying  crop  anywhere  in  the  far  South.  It  is  true 
that  isolated  trees  here  and  there  have  given  some  pears,  but 
only  in  small  quantities  ;  nor  are  the  trees  sufficiently  vigor- 
ous in  our  climate.  The  Le  Conte,  Garber  and  Kieffer, 
ripening  in  succession,  are  a  perfect  success  everywhere. 

(189) 


IQO  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

The  Smith's  Hybrid  is  simply  a  poor  Le  Conte.  It  ripens  at 
the  same  time,  but  rots  more  quickly  at  the  core,  and  after 
fruiting  several  years,  my  trees  were  top-budded  to  Garber, 
which  pear  forms  a  perfect  succession  to  the  Le  Conte,  and 
is  superior  in  quality  to  either  it  or  the  Kieffer.  It  resembles 
the  latter  closely  in  shape  and  size,  but  has  the  smooth  skin 
of  the  Le  Conte,  and  ripens  well  on  or  off  the  tree,  never 
rotting  at  the  core  or  suffering  from  the  bitter-rot  on  the  out- 
side, as  the  Kieffer  often  does.  However,  with  all  its  good 
qualities,  it  has  one  most  serious  fault,  and  that  is,  its  late- 
ness in  coming  into  bearing.  This  is  due,  probably,  to  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  grown  so  continuously  from  young  trees 
that  a  full  crop  cannot  now  be  expected  on  such  trees  for  ten 
years  or  more.  But  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  this 
variety  should  be  largely  grown  as  a  succession  to  Le  Conte, 
when  it  becomes  necessary  to  can  or  evaporate  our  crop.  It 
ripens  at  a  time  that  offers  a  better  market  for  pears  than  any 
period  in  the  year,  for  the  California,  Bartlett  and  Le  Conte 
are  then  gone,  the  Kieffer  still  green,  and  the  California 
varieties  on  the  market  are  far  inferior  in  quality  to  it. 
Fortunately,  we  now  have  a  way  to  bring  this  variety  into 
early  bearing — by  budding  it  on  Le  Conte,  Kieffer  or 
young  Garber,  grown  from  cuttings.  The  great  difficulty  is 
to  obtain  wood  from  bearing  trees.  The  Kieffer  is  so  well 
known  that  comment  is  unnecessary,  except  to  warn  growers 
against  allowing  it  to  overbear. 

While  in  remarks  elsewhere  on  the  decadence  of  modern 
orchards  no  reference  to  the  pear  in  the  South  was  intended, 
there  is  no  question  that  over  cropping  and  non-fertilizing 
will  quickly  reduce  the  fruit  to  a  very  small  size,  and  greatly 
weaken  the  tree.  I  omitted  to  allude  to  one  other  pear  that 
is  now  growing  in  my  former  orchard  at  Hitchcock,  which 
requires  mention  only  as  a  warning  of  its  utter  worthlessness 
for  any  purpose.  It  has  from  time  to  time  been  put  before 
the  public  as  Early  Harvest,  Jefferson  and  Lawson-Comet, 
but  is  a  fraud  under  any  name.  A  fourteen-year-old  tree  that 
cost  me  two  dollars  has  never  borne  more  than  a  dozen  pears 
at  a  time,  and  never  bloomed  until  it  was  ten  years  old, 


THE     PEAR.  igi 

though  it  is  one  of  the  most  vigorous  growers  in  the  orchard, 
and  now  over  thirty  feet  high.  It  is  the  earliest  and  most 
beautiful  of  all  pears,  ripening  about  the  first  of  June,  but  it 
rots  at  the  core  in  a  day  or  so  after  being  gathered,  if  near 
ripe,  and  in  quality  is  about  equal  to  sawdust.  Referring 
again  to  the  Garber,  and  budding  from  bearing  trees,  it 
would  not  be  advisable  to  top-bud  young  two  or  three-year- 
old  Le  Conte  trees  in  orchard,  for  the  labor  of  keeping  the 
Le  Conte  shoots  rubbed  off  below  would  be  very  considerable 
for  several  years.  It  would  be  far  better  to  bud  within  a  foot 
of  the  ground,  and  turn  the  whole  tree  into  that  pear. 

Having  discussed  the  growing  of  cuttings  fully  in  a  former 
chapter,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  here  that  it  is  practically 
impossible  to  grow  this  pear  from  cuttings  except  in  the  fall, 
when,  if  planted  the  last  of  September  or  early  in  October, 
in  the  open  ground  if  sufficiently  moist,  or  closely  in  a  bed 
and  kept  watered,  90  per  cent,  of  it,  as  well  as  Le  Conte  and 
Kieffer,  will  root. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

The  Plum. 

UNTIL  the  introduction  of  the  Japan  varieties,  the 
South,  especially  the  lower  portion,  bordering  on  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  has  been  altogether  dependent  upon 
the  native  or  Chickasaw  varieties  for  her  plums.  I  began 
years  ago  to  test  the  most  prominent  sorts,  that  are  so  de- 
servedly popular  in  the  Middle  and  Northern  States.  While 
all  are  reasonably  good  growers  here,  they  fail  entirely  in  pro- 
ductiveness. Occasionally  a  few  fine  specimens  will  reward 
one's  labor,  but  nothing  more.  Of  the  common  sorts,  the 
Wild  Goose,  if  pollenized  with  some  other  kind  near  by,  will 
produce  good  crops,  and  the  Robinson,  Indian  Chief  and 
Golden  Beauty,  a  small  late  plum,  are  all  good  bearers  also, 
though  they  fall  far  short  of  filling  the  bill  as  first-class  mar- 
ket plums.  The  skin  of  all  is  very  thin  and  tender,  and  they 
fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  vigorous  attacks  of  the  curculio,  un- 
less well  sprayed  with  Paris  green  and  lime  water,  or  the  lat- 
ter alone,  scented  with  a  pint  to  the  barrel  of  gas  tar.  But 
with  the  introduction  of  the  Japan  varieties,  a  new  era  has 
dawned  upon  plum  culture  in  the  Gulf  States.  Not  only  are 
the  members  of  this  class  proving  early  bearers,  and  exceed- 
ingly productive  as  a  rule,  but  their  skin  is  thicker  and,  we 
hope,  less  liable  to  damage  by  the  curculio.  We  may,  there- 
fore, rest  assured  that  at  last  we  shall  have,  with  moderate 
spraying,  fine,  large,  handsome  market  plums,  perfectly 
adapted  to  the  South.  But  the  all-important  and  as  yet  un- 
settled problem  is,  Which  are  the  most  valuable  varieties? 
The  pictures  and  descriptions  of  all  fruits  c  -  '.  J  ^J.  Jiafr*1  'n 
are  so  bewildering  in  their  magnificence,  and  this  class  of 
plums  particularly,  that  one  instinctively  wants  them  all. 
The  first  to  flash  across  the  sky  of  horticulture  were  the 
Abundance  and  Botan,  between  which,  if  there  is  any  real 

(192) 


THE     PLUM.  IQ3 

difference,  I  have  never  been  able  to  see  it,  though  there  is 
now  a  plum  called  the  True  Sweet  Botan,  or  Berckmans,  that 
is  somewhat  different  both  in  growth  and  bearing,  and,  like 
the  Botan,  a  most  excellent  eating  fruit.  This  plum  equals 
any  of  the  Japan  race  in  quality,  though  the  various  catalogues 
are  annually  bringing  out  something  that  they  claim  is  better. 
One  enterprising  nurseryman  in  Louisiana  has  a  genuine  rab- 
bit's foot  for  getting  all  sorts  and  colors,  from  snowy  white 
to  ebony  black,  fresh  by  telegraph  from  Japan,  their  flavors 
ranging  through  such  a  delicious  chord  of  descriptive  adjec- 
tives that  one  wonders  that  the  very  angels  do  not  drop  their 
harps  and  hie  them  back  to  earth.  Let  them  alone  !  The 
old  Kelsey  is  undoubtedly  a  splendid  fruit  where  it  succeeds, 
but  it  is  subject  to  rot  in  many  places,  though  neither 
here  or  in  Southwest  Texas.  It  is  enormously  prolific  there, 
and  I  saw  it  in  perfection  at  Beeville,  at  which  place,  though 
plums  and  peaches  have  been  grown  for  many  years,  I  saw 
several  very  old  and  extensive  orchards  that  were  entirely 
exempt  from  curculio  and  worms.  It  is  plain  that  this  insect 
has  no  love  for  a  dry,  warm  climate,  as  he  also  ignores  West- 
ern Texas  generally.  But  in  point  of  production,  good  size, 
solidity  and  moderate  earliness,  the  Burbank  stands  far  ahead 
of  all  Japan  plums,  though  the  fruit  has  been  greatly  over- 
rated. The  quality  here  is  quite  poor,  unless  left  on  the  tree 
until  perfectly  mature,  when  it  is  passably  good.  The  Ha- 
tankio,  or  Kerr,  is  also  a  good  eating  plum,  but  a  large  five- 
year-old  tree  at  Hitchcock  has  borne  no  fruit,  the  blossoms 
dropping  every  year.  The  Ogon  bore  well  last  year,  but  the 
quality  is  very  poor,  as  is  that  of  the  Satsuma,  which,  like 
the  Hatankio,  is  practically  barren.  The  Red  June  or  Na- 
gate,  being  boomed  this  season,  like  the  Willard  was  last,  as 
the  best  of  all  the  Japan  plums,  has  failed  to  bear  a  plum  on 
a  large  five-year-old  tree  at  Hitchcock,  for  which  I  paid  the 
Starks  one  dollar,  nor  has  it  even  formed  blossom  buds.  The 
Willard  is  equally  worthless  here,  the  trees  actually  not  leaf- 
ing out  until  the  first  of  May.  The  new  Wickson  comes 
highly  recommended,  and  ought  to  be  valuable,  as  it  is  Mr. 
Burbank' s  pride. 
13— HORT. 


IQ4  THE      NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

However,  while  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  I  ex- 
pressed great  confidence  in  the  final  success  of  the  Japan 
plums  in  the  far  South,  I  must  admit  that  the  present  season 
of  '96  has  witnessed  a  very  general  and  entirely  unexplained 
failure.  This  fact  is  puzzling  many  who  have  planted  freely, 
and  others  who  desire  to  plant.  There  has  been  no  frost  at 
all  to  damage  the  blooms,  and  the  Robinson,  Wild  Goose, 
Indian  Chief  and  other  Chickasaw  varieties  are  all  loaded 
down,  yet  the  Japan  plums  in  the  same  orchards  have  not 
only  cast  all  or  nearly  all  their  fruit,  on  trees  of  all  ages,  from 
three  to  six  years,  but  straggled  along  for  more  than  a  month 
in  blooming,  and  to-day,  the  first  of  May,  blooms  are  still 
opening.  There  is  unquestionably  a  cause  for  this  queer 
conduct,  and  after  studying  over  it  for  a  month,  and  with  a 
full  knowledge  of  the  general  failure  of  the  Marianna  as  a 
stock  for  these  plums  elsewhere,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
this  freak  is  largely  due  to  a  decided  want  of  congeniality 
between  the  Japan  race  and  the  Marianna  stock  here  also. 
While  the  Marianna  has  become  immensely  popular  as  a 
stock  for  other  plums,  both  because  of  its  vigorous  growth 
and  the  fact  of  striking  so  readily  from  cuttings,  and  never 
suckering,  and  while  it  may  yet,  perhaps,  be  the  best  of  all 
stocks  at  the  North,  there  is  indubitable  evidence  to  prove 
that  the  Japan  plums  are  very  short-lived  when  worked  upon 
it  in  Texas  and  the  South,  and  that  it  will  generally  kill  a 
peach  at  the  end  of  the  first  and  always  the  second  year. 
Complaints  on  this  score  have  been  general  for  some  time, 
and  many  nurserymen  are  abandoning  its  use  altogether,  pre- 
ferring to  work  the  Japan  plums  entirely  on  the  peach,  which 
experience  has  shown  to  be  particularly  adapted  to  that  race. 

I  was  at  Hitchcock  recently,  and  saw  a  six-year-old 
Burbank  plum  tree,  one  of  the  four  oldest  on  my  former 
place,  which  had  recently  died  without  the  slightest  visible 
cause.  A  careful  examination,  after  being  dug  up,  showed 
the  roots  to  have  been  apparently  healthy,  with  not  the 
slightest  sign  of  root  tumor  or  rot,  and  its  growth  had  been 
extraordinary,  and  yet  it  is  now  dead,  and  one  of  the  others 
is  plainly  doomed.  I  saw  the  same  results  the  past  season  at 


THE     PLUM.  195 

Beeville,  in  Southwest  Texas,  and  only  last  week  in  Beau- 
mont, on  the  east,  where  two  orchards  on  Marianna,  seven 
years  old,  had  died  the  past  summer.  The  same  experience 
has  been  related  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Steubenrauch,  of  Mexia, 
Texas,  one  of  the  most  successful  orchardists  of  North  Texas, 
and  also  by  several  growers  in  Tyler,  the  greatest  fruit  center 
in  the  state,  while  similar  reports  come  from  Louisiana  and 
east  of  the  Mississippi.  It  may,  therefore,  be  set  down  as 
proved  beyond  all  doubt  that  this  stock  is  unsuited  and  un- 
congenial to  the  Japan  race  of  plums.  In  a  recent  letter, 
Mr.  Luther  Burbank  tells  me  that  it  is  also  of  doubtful  value 
in  California.  Several  nurserymen  of  East  Texas  are  now 
propagating  the  Japan  plums  on  the  common  wild  plum  of 
this  state,  the  Prunus  Americana,  and  claim  that  it  is  well 
suited  to  them.  I  have  had  some  experience  with  that  plum, 
and  so  far  it  seems  to  dwarf  whatever  was  put  upon  it  even 
more  than  the  Myrobalan.  However,  as  there  are  a  great 
number  of  different  seedlings  of  this  species,  some  differing 
considerably  from  others,  they  may  have  one  better  suited 
than  mine.  I  have  seen  some  seedlings  in  the  woods  near 
Beaumont  that  suckered  badly,  though  others  do  not.  As  it 
has  been  only  recently  that  experience  has  shown  the  want  of 
congeniality  of  the  Marianna  and  Japan  plums,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  there  are  trees  of  the  latter  race  more  than  five  or 
six  years  old  on  the  Americana  stock,  so  it  is  entirely  un- 
settled yet  how  they  will  ultimately  succeed,  and  assertions 
of  interested  parties  must  be  taken  with  great  caution. 
Enough  money  has  been  fooled  away  on  the  oriental  plums 
worked  on  Marianna  to  make  people  go  very  slow  with  this 
new  stock.  On  firm,  well-drained  ground,  fertilized  and 
regularly  mowed,  but  not  plowed,  I  believe  the  peach  is  the 
best  stock  for  the  Japan  plums,  unless  the  Myrobalan  is  supe- 
rior. The  latter  is  almost  universally  used  in  California  and 
France,  and  is  said  to  be  especially  adapted  for  stiff  soil  and 
damp  ground,  and  is  entirely  successful  as  a  stock  in  such 
locations  in  California.  I  have  heard  no  objection  to  this 
stock,  except  that  the  Japan  plums  do  not  grow  as  fast  on  it 
as  on  Marianna.  This  is  no  objection  at  all,  if  the  trees  live 


ig6  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

and   are  productive.      In    fact,    a    moderate    growth    is    more 
likely  to  be  a  healthy  one. 

But,  after  all,  would  not  all  these  Japan  plums  be  likely 
to  succeed  just  as  well  on  their  own  roots  as  on  any  other 
stock?  There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  treating  them  thus 
by  grafting  on  the  Marianna  plum,  and  then  cutting  away  the 
stocks  after  the  scions  had  taken  root  at  the  lower  ends. 
Some  of  the  Japan  plums,  particularly  the  Satsuma,  will 
sometimes  grow  quite  well  from  cuttings,  and  all  would  likely 
root  if  treated  as  described  in  the  chapter  on  grafting.  It  is 
well  worth  trying,  for  naturally  vigorous  trees  like  these 
plums  would  do  best  on  their  own  roots.  But  in  the  near 
future  Mr.  Luther  Burbank  promises  us  a  far  better  stock 
than  any  we  now  have.  He  has  crossed  the  Satsuma  on  other 
varieties,  and  thinks  he  has  something  that  will  fill  the  long 
desired  want  for  a  vigorous  stock  particularly  adapted  to  the 
Japan  varieties  as  well  as  all  other  plums. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

The  Peach. 

FOR  some  unexplained  reason,  the  Persian  strain  of 
peaches,  so  successful  elsewhere  over  the  United  States, 
is  a  total  failure  in  lower  South  Texas,  and  especially 
along  the  coast.  The  trees  grow  well,  but  are  all  very  back- 
ward in  starting  off  in  spring,  and  form  but  few  fruit  buds. 
I  do  not  know  of  a  single  productive  tree  of  any  of  these 
varieties  in  this  whole  section.  A  fine,  large  Elberta,  on  Mr. 
I.  Aiken's  grounds  at  Hitchcock,  now  six  years  old,  has 
never  borne  over  a  dozen  peaches  at  a  crop,  and  has  not  that 
many  on  the  tree  the  present  season.  However,  though  we 
may  not  grow  the  Persian  varieties  successfully,  still  we  are 
not  without  kinds  that  will  afford  a  succession,  if  not  of  extra 
large  peaches,  still  most  excellent  ones  in  quality,  and  unsur- 
passed in  productiveness  and  regularity  of  bearing.  I  allude 
to  the  Waldo,  Angel,  Imperial  and  Climax,  of  the  Peen-to 
and  Honey  strains.  Those  are  all  freestones.  The  Triena  is 
a  red-fleshed  cling,  about  the  same  size  as  the  above,  and  the 
best  clingstone  of  those  strains.  While  the  catalogues  con- 
tain an  additional  list  of  a  great  number  of  these  hybrids, 
they  are  all  practically  identical  with  the  above  or  inferior  to 
them,  and  ripen  precisely  at  the  same  time.  It  is  claimed 
that  the  Jewell  is  about  a  week  earlier  than  Waldo,  but 
proved  no  earlier  with  me,  and  has  the  bad  fault  of  blooming 
several  weeks  ahead  of  the  Waldo.  The  above  are  all  of  the 
Chinese  Peen-to  and  Honey  types.  In  addition  to  them, 
recent  experiments  have  shown  that  several  Chinese  hybrids 
are  also  very  productive  in  the  Gulf  region.  The  Chinese 
Free,  Thurber  and  Family  Favorite  are  the  cream  of  this  type, 
and  will  furnish  the  best  and  largest  peaches  yet  found  that 
bear  well  this  far  South.  Though  the  season  has  been  ex- 
ceedingly dry,  these  varieties  were  heavily  loaded  with  large 

(197) 


ig8  THE      NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

fruit  of  most  excellent  flavor.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  coun- 
try in  the  world  where  a  peach  crop  can  be  counted  on 
with  more  certainty  than  on  the  above  varieties  here.  The 
warm  Gulf  breeze  beats  back  the  early  fall  northers,  and  our 
peach  trees  hold  their  leaves  until  late  in  fall ;  in  fact,  often 
almost  until  Christmas.  This  causes  them  to  rest  late  enough 
in  spring,  if  not  winter-pruned,  to  nearly  always  miss  the 
killing  late  frosts,  so  fatal  further  up  the  country.  It  is  true 
that  the  Waldo  and  Angel,  which  bloom  first,  sometimes  get 
caught,  but  they  have  the  remarkable  faculty  of  holding  back 
enough  buds,  with  almost  human  sagacity,  to  furnish  a  full 
crop,  even  if  the  first  blooms  are  killed.  This  peculiarity, 
with  their  good  eating  and  shipping  qualities  and  small  pits, 
makes  them  not  only  very  desirable  for  home  use,  but  should 
make  them  profitable  as  a  market  crop  when  the  interior 
peaches  are  killed.  The  so-called  Spanish  peaches,  Gal- 
veston,  Onderdonk,  Carpenter,  Florida  Crawford,  Countess 
Victoria,  and  others,  are  really  nothing  more  than  common 
seedlings  of  more  than  ordinary  merit,  but  not  profitable  for 
any  except  a  nearby  market.  They  lack  color,  nor  are  all  of 
that  list  good  bearers  here,  and  all  are  late.  I  omitted  to  say 
that  the  Dwarf  Japan  Blood  has  proved  of  no  value,  having 
been  unproductive  now  for  four  years. 

As  stated  elsewhere,  the  peach  must  have  dry  feet  and  a 
firm  soil,  both  top  and  bottom,  for  health  and  long  life  here. 
There  is  no  place  for  a  close  root-pruned  peach  orchard  like 
a  rolling,  well  drained,  virgin  prairie  sod,  with  close  mowing 
during  the  growing  season.  But  not  for  trees  set  with  long 
roots.  By  imitating  nature,  and  planting  close  root-pruned 
trees,  practically  seed,  on  ground  like  she  selects,  perhaps 
even  the  dread  yellows  will  never  appear,  and  peaches 
may  be  grown  at  the  far  North  with  good  success,  where  now 
they  either  die  of  the  above  disease  or  winter-kill  every  year. 
The  curculio  and  common  cotton-boll  worm  are  the  only 
serious  enemies  to  the  fruit  here,  and  the  best  preventive  I 
have  ever  tried  is  a  thorough  spraying  with  weak  whitewash, 
with  a  little  gas  tar  added  to  make  it  smell.  This  appeals  to 
both  sight  and  smell,  and  has  given  me  sound  fruit. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

Apricots,  Figs,  Japan  Persimmons,  and  Nuts. 

EXPERIENCE  in  South  Texas  with  several  Florida  varie- 
ties and  a  large  number  of  the  old  standard  kinds  has, 
up  to  the  present  time,  failed  to  develop  a  single  pro- 
ductive apricot.      They  all  grow  well  and  bloom  profusely, 
but    fail    to    set    their  fruit.      Recent  experiments,   however, 
with  the  old  Royal,  at  Arcadia,  lead  to  the  hope  that  it  may 
bear,  for  it  set  some  fruit  the  present  season,  which  unfortu- 
nately a  severe  wind  thrashed  off. 

FIGS. — This  popular  fruit  should  be  in  every  man's  yard 
in  abundance,  both  for  himself  and  for  his  poultry,  and, 
being  exceedingly  surface-rooted  naturally,  should  always  be 
grown  from  a  cutting  or  very  close  root-pruned  tree.  But, 
except  for  very  nearby  markets,  it  is  almost  useless  to  grow 
figs  in  quantity.  A  large  preserving  establishment  was 
started  in  New  Orleans  a  few  years  ago,  and  a  very  consider- 
able quantity  of  the  fruit  put  up,  but  experience  soon  showed 
that  the  preserves  were  of  such  an  exceedingly  sweet  and 
cloying  quality  that  very  few  could  be  eaten  at  once,  and  the 
demand  has  been  very  small.  The  plant  suspended  opera- 
tions a  year  ago,  and  is  now  idle.  The  fig  thrives  far  better 
in  a  firm,  packed,  undisturbed  soil,  like  a  back  or  chicken 
yard,  than  when  plowed  and  cultivated.  The  little  Celeste  or 
Sugar  is  much  the  most  hardy  and  popular  kind,  and  if 
trained  up  as  a  standard  will  make  a  very  large  and  hand- 
some shade  tree. 

JAPAN  PERSIMMONS. — A  few  years  ago  it  was  impossible  to 
sell  the  fruit  of  this  tree,  or  even  give  it  away.  Dr.  Pearle, 
of  Houston,  planted  quite  an  orchard  twelve  or  fifteen  years 
ago,  and  when  the'trees  came  into  bearing,  I  happened  to  visit 
the  place  in  the  fall,  and  found  a  large  lot  of  the  fruit  on 
hand,  for  which  there  was  positively  no  demand.  Since  then, 

(i99) 


20O  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

however,  the  public  taste  has  been  gradually  educated  up  to 
a  moderate  demand,  and  possibly  in  a  few  years  they  will  be 
very  popular.  Some  varieties  are  much  more  hardy  than 
others.  I  had  one  sent  to  me  under  the  name  of  Hyakume 
that  was  killed  by  a  freeze  at  Hitchcock,  while  another  longer 
and  more  pointed  kind  has  never  been  hurt.  I  know  trees  of 
this  variety  in  Beaumont  that  have  borne  enormously  for 
fifteen  years,  though  I  do  not  know  the  name.  Experience 
has  shown  that  all  persimmon  trees,  as  well  as  pecans,  are 
peculiarly  adapted  to  close  root-pruning,  and  make  enormous, 
deep,  strong  roots  the  first  year.  If  set  in  early  winter  and 
well  tramped,  both  will  grow  freely,  even  from  the  tops  of 
trees  cut  just  at  or  even  a  little  above  where  the  first  or 
upper  roots  of  the  seedling  are  emitted,  and  will  make  an 
astonishing  growth  the  first  season.  For  propagating  both 
persimmons  and  pecans  on  large  trees,  winter  budding,  as 
described  elsewhere,  will  be  found  to  be  particularly  adapted, 
and  much  easier  and  more  certain  than  grafting. 

NUTS. — For  Texas  the  pecan,  of  course,  ranks  first  in  im- 
portance, and  doubtless  the  exaggerated  estimates  of  the 
value  of  a  pecan  grove  as  a  source  of  profit  have  led  quite  a 
number  of  persons  to  embark  in  this  business,  who  will  be 
disappointed.  While  this  fine  nut  generally  finds  a  market 
at  some  price,  still  the  vast  number  of  wild  bearing  trees,  the 
crops  of  which  are  free  and  gathered  by  cheap  labor,  at  a 
time  when  little  else  can  be  done,  will  always  depress  prices. 
In  some  seasons,  like  the  last,  values  have  been  so  low  in 
many  localities,  that  thousands  of  pounds  have  been  left  for 
the  hogs  to  eat  or  to  rot  on  the  ground.  The  common  seed- 
ling pecan  cannot  possibly  pay  as  an  investment,  for  even 
from  the  best  seed  inferior  and  male  or  unproductive  kinds 
spring.  But  those  who  will  plant  the  nuts  on  firm  ground, 
and  then,  when  two  years  old,  graft,  or  better  still,  winter- 
bud,  as  described  elsewhere,  using  wood  or  buds  from  full 
bearing  trees  of  the  largest  thin-shelled  varieties,  will  very 
likely  find  a  good  market  for  a  long  time.  As  to  enemies,  the 
frost  occasionally  blights  the  blossoms,  and  the  tent  caterpil- 
lar very  frequently  strips  the  leaves  from  the  trees.  But,  of 


APRICOTS,     FIGS,     JAPAN     PERSIMMONS     AND     NUTS.  2OI 

course,  the  enterprising  grower  could  easily  combat  the  latter 
by  spraying. 

The  English  walnut  is  another  nut  that  ought  to  succeed 
here,  but  we  have  no  trees,  as  yet,  over  five  years  old,  and 
they  have  borne  nothing  so  far.  The  chief  enemy  of  this  nut 
is  the  flat-headed  cottonwood  borer,  but  a  good  coat  of  white- 
wash on  the  trunks  every  winter  will  entirely  deter  the  moth 
from  laying  her  eggs  on  this  and  all  other  trees.  Of  course, 
only  nuts  or  close  root-pruned  trees  should  be  planted,  and 
on  firm  ground.  The  Japan  walnut,  however,  is  a  very  early 
bearer,  even  from  the  nut,  and  in  five  years  will  make  quite  a 
large  tree,  and  bear  full  crops.  The  nuts  seem  to  reproduce 
quite  true,  and  this  tree  also  has  been  proved  to  take  most 
kindly  to  root-pruning.  It  is  almost  entirely  free  from  all 
insect  pests,  will  likely  attain  a  very  large  size  ultimately, 
and  make  a  most  ornamental  shade  tree.  But  the  nuts,  being 
small  and  hard  shelled,  will  have  little  or  no  market  value. 

The  Japan  chestnut  has  so  far  failed  to  set  its  fruit  when 
grown  from  the  seed.  It  is  a  very  vigorous  tree,  but  drops 
its  blossoms  every  year  here.  The  almond  has  not  had  the 
attention  it  deserves  in  Texas,  but  full  experiments  are  being 
made,  though  its  value  is  very  doubtful  anywhere  in  the 
state,  as  it  blooms  very  early.  The  hickory  nut  and  black 
walnut  would  not  pay  for  the  nuts,  but  the  man  who  will 
plant  a  walnut  grove  from  seed,  on  firm  virgin  soil,  like  the 
squirrels  do,  if  he  has  the  ground  to  spare,  will,  in  the  end, 
have  a  most  profitable  investment  anywhere.  But  "culti- 
vate" all  nut  trees  when  old  enongh  to  bear  with  a  mowing 
machine,  for  every  farmer  knows  that  as  soon  as  pecan  trees 
are  enclosed  in  cultivated  fields  and  plowed,  they  cease  to 
bear.  They  bloom  freely,  but  the  destruction  of  their  surface 
roots  causes  them  nearly  always  to  shed. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

The  Strawberry  and  Other  Berries. 

is  by  far  the  most  profitable  early  spring  crop  for 
the  lower  Gulf  States,  and  especially  the  coast  country 
of  Texas,  where  conditions  of  climate  and  transporta- 
tion are  so  favorable,  and  where,  unlike  sections  farther 
North,  a  full  crop  can  be  grown  the  following  season  from 
summer  or  fall  planting.  In  choosing  a  location  for  straw- 
berries, always  select  the  stiffest  and  strongest  soil,  the  black, 
waxy  and  yellow  clay  land  being  ideal  ground  for  this  crop. 
Actual  experience  has  shown,  that  this  is  one  of  the  few 
plants  that  will  do  as  well  or  even  better  here,  manured  in 
the  drill,  as  presently  described.  Its  natural  tendency  is  to 
form  surface  roots,  and  they  should  by  all  means  be  drawn  or 
tempted  to  go  down.  Broadcast  fertilizing  mixes  the  manure 
both  at  the  top  and  bottom  and,  though  it  may  look  unreason- 
able, burying  the  manure  in  the  drill  under  the  plants  will 
always  make  the  largest  fruit.  So,  instead  of  scattering  the 
manure,  whatever  it  may  be,  broadcast,  first  break  the  whole 
ground  as  deeply  as  possible,  and  harrow  thoroughly  until 
well  pulverized,  after  which  open  furrows  about  two  and  one- 
half  or  three  feet  apart  by  running  the  plow  each  way. 
Along  in  this  strew  the  fertilizer,  and  be  sure  to  put  enough. 
About  half  as  much  will  do  on  the  heavy  black  land,  though 
it  is  hard  to  err  in  putting  on  plenty  everywhere.  If  barn- 
yard manure  is  used,  and  there  is  no  better  if  enough  can  be 
had,  fill  the  bottoms  -of  the  furrows  several  inches  deep. 
Then  run  a  bull  tongue  up  and  down,  thoroughly  stirring  and 
mixing  it  all.  Next,  throw  the  earth  back  on  the  furrows 
from  each  side  by  splitting  out  the  middles,  quite  deep.  Do 
not  be  afraid  to  leave  the  ridges  well  up.  After  smoothing 
off  the  tops  to  about  a  foot  wide  with  a  rake,  cover  the  whole 
surface,  ridges  and  furrows,  quite  deeply  and  evenly  with  hay 

(202) 


THE    STRAWBERRY    AND    OTHER    BERRIES.  203 

or  straw,  strewing  it  directly  from  the  wagon,  which  can  be 
run  down  between  the  rows.  Spread  the  mulch  thick  enough 
to  be  at  least  two  or  three  inches  deep  after  settling.  Do  this 
in  July  or  August,  so  as  to  catch  the  summer  rains  and  have 
moist  ground  for  planting  in  September  and  October.  I  ha^e 
the  present  season  made  careful  notes,  in  many  fields,  of  re- 
sults from  different  dates  of  planting,  and  find  without  excep- 
tion, that  plants  set  in  those  two  months  not  only  grow  by 
February  quite  as  large  as  the  two-year-old  ones,  but  produce 
just  as  many  and  larger  berries.  The  difference  in  size  of 
fruit  from  the  two  ages  alongside  was  in  every  instance  very 
remarkable  in  favor  of  the  fall-set  plants.  The  great  trouble 
is  that  frequently  in  the  fall  the  weather  is  so  hot  and  dry 
that  it  is  very  difficult  to  make  plants  live  when  set.  This 
comes  entirely  from  a  too  high  temperature  of  the  soil,  which 
is  entirely  obviated  by  mulching  as  directed.  Thousands  of 
plants  are  annually  sacrificed  in  August  and  September,  from 
ignorance  that  unless  set  with  a  ball  of  earth  at  that  time,  the 
earth  if  clean,  is  too  hot  for  the  plants  to  take  root.  But  if 
mulched  in  July  or  August,  and  a  good  rain  falls  to  wet  the 
earth  well,  it  will  remain  cool  and  moist  the  whole  fall. 

When  ready  to  set,  cut  all  roots  back  to  about  one  inch, 
open  a  small  hole  in  the  mulch  and  insert  the  roots,  fan- 
shape,  straight  down  at  least  fifteen  inches  apart.  Never 
spread  out  the  roots  of  any  tree  or  plant,  as  this  induces  a  super- 
ficial system.  After  setting,  pull  the  straw  or  hay  lightly  over 
the  plant,  as  a  shade,  and  go  on  to  the  next.  Treated  thus, 
and  allowed  to  grow  right  up  through  the  mulch,  a  stand  can 
always  be  secured  with  good,  strong  plants,  a  month  or  more 
in  advance  of  those  who  undertake  to  plant  on  clean,  unpro- 
tected ground.  Another  great  advantage  of  this  method  is, 
that  if  the  mulch  has  been  put  on  evenly  and  of  moderate 
thickness,  no  further  work  will  be  required  until  the  crop  is 
gone  except,  perhaps,  the  pulling  up  of  a  few  stray  weeds 
that  force  themselves  up  through  the  mulch  in  spring.  But, 
even  if  this  fall  mulching  be  not  practiced,  no  one  should 
ever  neglect  this  vitally  important  operation  at  some  time 
before  the  fruit  ripens.  Sandy,  dirty  berries  are  now  the 


2O4  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

rule,  and  not  the  exception,  at  several  points,  which  has  re- 
sulted in  giving  this  season's  crop  a  depreciated  value  of 
from  25  to  50  per  cent,  lower  than  it  would  have  brought  had 
mulching  been  general.  It  is  hard  to  understand  why  other- 
wise enterprising  growers  will  persist,  from  year  to  year,  in 
flooding  the  markets  with  such  fruit.  They  not  only  hurt 
themselves,  but  also  all  other  growers  who  do  mulch,  for 
when  prices  come  down  for  sandy  fruit,  the  clean  has  to  suf- 
fer likewise.  The  matted-row  system  is  another  mistake  of 
many  growers,  and  is  responsible  for  this,  as  it  is  really  im- 
possible to  properly  mulch  plants  thus  grown.  That  system 
is  admirably  adapted  to  the  North,  where  the  entire  tops  of 
the  plants  are  winter-killed,  and  when  growth  starts  in  spring 
the  blooms  come  early,  before  the  foliage  grows  too  large,  so 
as  to  shade  the  fruit  too  much,  as  it  will  here.  Strawberries 
grown  in  the  shade  will  not  ship  well,  being  not  only  soft,  but 
of  inferior  quality.  The  sun  should  be  able  to  strike  all 
around  every  plant,  and  the  berries  will  then  be  firm  and 
bright.  On  no  crop  can  be  seen  more  plainly  the  effect  of 
liberal  and  judicious  fertilizing  than  on  this.  Heavy  applica- 
tions of  cotton-seed  meal,  or  any  fertilizer  rich  in  ammonia 
alone,  will  always  produce  a  rank  growth  of  vine,  susceptible 
to  the  "rust,"  and  soft,  insipid  fruit.  Plenty  of  potash, 
and  especially  phosphoric  acid,  are  absolute  necessities  for 
firm,  high-colored,  well-flavored  berries.  For  those  who  in- 
tend to  make  this  a  business,  it  is  a  matter  of  the  first  im- 
portance to  provide  a  full  supply  of  new  plants  every  year, 
and  a  bed  of  sufficient  size,  rich  and  convenient  to  water, 
should  be  set  with  plants  about  three  feet  apart,  in  February 
or  March,  for  runners.  If  shaded  somewhat  by  a  light  frame 
and  brush  after  June,  very  little  or  no  water  at  all  will  be  re- 
quired until  August,  when  it  should  be  supplied,  if  dry,  to 
compel  the  plants  to  throw  out  new  and  strong  roots,  for  re- 
planting in  September  and  October. 

As  to  marketing,  nothing  need  be  said,  except  that  many 
growers  will  persist  every  year  in  shipping  half-ripe  fruit,  to 
the  great  depreciation  of  their  crop  later  on.  Prices  have 
now  come  down  to  hard-pan,  the  public  is  yearly  growing 


THE      STRAWBERRY     AND     OTHER     BERRIES.  205 

more  critical  in  its  demand  for  quality  in  all  fruits,  and  it  is 
the  height  of  folly  for  berry  growers,  when  the  season  is  cool 
and  there  is  no  danger  of  the  fruit  spoiling,  to  try  to  force 
half-ripe,  pale  and  sandy  berries  on  the  market.  I  kept  close 
watch  on  the  reports  from  the  large  cities  this  season,  and 
saw  repeated  complaints  on  this  subject.  The  Florida 
growers  do  not  do  it,  and  their  fruit  has  steadily  maintained 
a  good  price  in  New  York,  and  has  been  invariably  quoted  in 
St.  Louis  and  Chicago,  the  present  season,  at  more  than 
double  the  price  of  Texas  berries.  The  strawberry  in  the 
South  is  subject  to  but  one  disease — the  "rust,"  already  al- 
luded to — a  bacterial  one,  due  to  conditions  of  extreme  and 
sudden  variations  of  temperature  and  moisture.  While  thfe 
Michel  has  been  most  seriously  affected  by  this  disease  every- 
where the  present  season,  the  old  reliable  Nunan  has  not 
shown  a  sign  of  it,  though  grown  amongst  and  alongside,  and 
its  plants  have  averaged  double  the  size  of  the  Michel.  As 
to  varieties,  the  latter  should  be  entirely  discarded  for  out- 
side planting,  though,  as  shown  farther  on,  it  can  be  grown 
with  great  profit  under  cover.  A  very  careful  examination  of 
many  strawberry  fields  by  Mr.  E.  W.  Kirkpatrick,  an  old 
berry  grower  of  North  Texas,  the  present  season  of  '96,  con- 
vinced him  that  the  Nunan  and  Cloud  Seedling  are  by  far 
the  best  varieties  for  South  Texas.  The  latter  is  a  pistillate, 
and  requires  every  third  row  to  be  planted  with  Nunan 
which  has  a  perfect  flower.  The  Smeltzer  is  also  an  excel- 
lent shipping  variety,  but  the  fruit  is  inferior  to  the  Nunan 
in  quality  anc^  color. 

And  now,  I  would  urge  all  growers  to  make  an  experiment 
with  the  Michel,  on  a  small  scale,  at  least,  under  plank  and 
oiled  cloth  covering.  While  this  is  an  extra-large,  early,  and 
really  good  eating  berry,  when  the  weather  becomes  warm 
and  dry  it  is  not  a  long-distance  shipper,  and  has  the  very 
serious  fault,  for  open  air  culture,  of  beginning  to  fruit  in  the 
fall  and  early  winter.  Ordinarily  those  crops  are  ruined  by  a 
freeze,  and  the  plants  have  had  their  work  for  nothing,  be- 
sides being  damaged  by  the  checking  of  their  sap  when  in 
motion,  which  is  probably  the  prime  cause  for  the  general 


206 


THE      NEW      HORTICULTURE. 


epidemic  of  rust  on  them  this  spring.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  we  had  early  and  repeated  frosts  and  light  ice,  several 
times  last  fall,  a  very  unusual  thing  at  that  season,  and  the 
Michel  plants  were  in  full  growth.  The  question  is,  Can  we 
not  utilize  this  quality  of  early  fall  and  winter  bearing  ?  I 
would  suggest^  on  a  high  location,  that  a  bed  about  eight  feet 
wide  be  thrown  up  well  with  a  plow,  after  being  thoroughly 


STRAWBERRY   BED,    UNCOVERED. 

fertilized.  On  top  of  this  place  an  ordinary  coldframe  five 
feet  wide,  made  of  i  x  10  or  1 2-inch  plank  for  sides,  con- 
nected by  strips  about  two  feet  apart,  cut  rounding,  as  shown 
in  the  illustration,  to  support  the  oiled  cloth  and  shed  the 
rain.  After  stretching  common  white  cotton  cloth  of  a  good 
grade,  to  make  it  last  it  should  be  thoroughly  oiled  with  a 


STRAWBERRY   BED,    COVERED. 

paint  brush,  or  the  cloth  might  be  dipped  in  the  linseed  oil 
and  wrung  out,  and  then  stretched  to  dry  on  the  bed.  I 
have  used  such  a  covering  for  tomatoes,  and  found  it  will 
protect  from  a  freeze  much  better  than  the  ordinary  frost- 
proof cloth  sold,  or  even  than  glass  sash.  Of  course,  the 
main  point  is  to  keep  out  a  freeze.  We  have  an  ordinary 
temperature  warm  enough  in  winter  to  perfectly  mature 


THE    STRAWBERRY     AND     OTHER     BERRIES.  207 

berries  in  the  open  air,  but  one,  or  at  most  two,  cold  spells 
every  year  spoil  the  crop.  No  other  variety  will  fruit  early 
and  out  of  season,  like  the  Michel,  which  makes  it  an  ideal 
plant  for  this  purpose.  I  know  of  no  crop  that  will  pay  like 
it,  if  treated  as  suggested,  and  I  predict  that  in  a  few  years 
every  enterprising  grower  will  have  one  or  more  beds  thus 
treated,  for  success  then  is  absolutely  certain  and  good  prices 
assured.  A  crop  thus  grown  must  of  necessity  be  limited, 
and  with  two  markets  like  Houston  and  Galveston  at  hand, 
an  over-production  of  fine,  ripe  fruit  would  be  impossible. 
But  the  balance  of  the  state  would  be  ready  to  take  any  sur- 
plus. Berries  like  the  Michel,  grown  on  rich  ground  and 
with  plenty  of  room,  and  protection  from  cold  and  beating 
rains,  would  color  up  handsomely,  and  always  bring  a  fine 
price.  The  people  who  buy  at  that  season  have  the  money, 
and  will  pay  well  for  a  first-class  article.  Of  course,  a  con- 
tingency of  dry  weather  must  be  provided  against  for  best 
results,  and  if  unable  to  afford  a  small  windmill,  a  good  hand 
force-pump,  with  ordinary  well,  will  furnish  abundant  water. 
Our  wells  are  always  full  in  winter.  It  would  be  well  to 
water  entirely  from  below,  to  prevent  wetting  the  fruit. 

When  preparing  the  bed,  lay  a  row  of  common  one-inch 
drain  tiles,  one  foot  long,  the  full  length  of  it  and  about  eight 
inches  beneath  the  surface.  Cover  the  tiles  with  an  inch  of 
shell,  gravel,  sawdust  or  hay,  in  order  to  keep  the  soil  from 
finding  its  way  between  the  joints  and  into  the  tiles.  Or,  in- 
stead of  tiles,  two  pieces  of  i  x  3  heart  pine,  nailed  together 
like  a  gutter,  and  the  edges  notched  at  intervals  of  six  inches, 
to  allow  a  free  .escape  of  the  water.  This  should  be  inverted, 
and  laid  upon  a  six-inch  plank,  at  the  depth  named,  and  the 
end  next  the  well,  whether  tiles  or  plank,  connected  by  hose 
to  the  pump.  The  fruit  when  ripe  need  never  be  wet,  which 
would  greatly  improve  its  appearance  and  shipping  qualities. 
The  plants  should  be  set  not  less  than  fifteen  inches  apart 
each  way,  and  the  bed  evenly  mulched  before  putting  them 
out.  A  strawberry  bed  of  Michel  thus  treated  would  be  ab- 
solutely sure  for  a  paying  crop,  and  the  yield  from  November 
to  March  alone  would  be  something  wonderful.  The  cover- 


208  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

ing  (see  cut,  page  206),  which,  by  the  way,  should  be  nailed 
fast  on  one  side,  and  the  other  tacked  to  long  one-inch  cur- 
tain-rods, and  fixed  so  as  to  lap  and  roll  back  in  all  ordinary 
weather,  could  be  removed  the  last  of  March  and  packed 
away  for  the  next  season,  and  the  plank  likewise,  and  both 
would  answer  for  a  long  time. 

If  northern  growers  can  afford  expensive  houses,  and 
steam  heating  to  grow  cucumbers,  lettuce,  etc.,  by  the  acre, 
surely  it  will  pay  to  spend  the  small  amount  of  money  re- 
quired here  to  grow  a  much  more  valuable  product  like  the 
strawberry,  and  put  it  on  the  market  during  the  winter 
months. 

BLACKBERRIES. — Like  the  strawberry,  the  dewberry  and 
blackberry  are  perfectly  at  home  around  the  Gulf  coasts,  and 
in  fact  all  over  the  South,  though  many  varieties  of  the  latter 
are  so  subject  to  rust  that  it  pays  best  to  confine  ourselves 
entirely  to  varieties  like  the  Dallas.  The  Mayes  or  Austin 
Hybrid  dewberry  and  Early  Trinity  blackberry  are  new  and 
very  promising  varieties,  that  are  well  worthy  of  a  trial.  As 
these  berries  are  all  rank  growers,  and  sucker  very  badly  in 
our  long,  warm  summers,  it  is  all-important  to  give  plenty  of 
room  between  the  rows,  to  permit  the  free  use  of  the  plow. 
Eight  feet  between  the  rows  is  none  too  much.  As  soon  as 
the  fruit  is  gone,  the  old  canes  should  be  cut  out  at  once,  or 
by  winter  they  will  become  so  tangled  with  the  new  growth 
that  their  removal  is  very  difficult  and  troublesome.  A  good 
dressing  of  bone  meal  or  phosphate  will  greatly  improve  the 
size  of  the  berries. 

The  raspberry,  gooseberry  and  currant  find  the  far  South 
too  warm  for  their  perfect  development,  and  these  fruits  are 
of  no  value  there,  though  some  of  the  black-cap  raspberries 
are  cultivated  to  a  limited  extent  in  the  upper  portions  of 
Texas. 

I  omitted  to  note  above  that  the  strawberry  beds  should 
run  north  and  south,  to  allow  all  the  plants  to  have  at  least 
half  a  day  of  sun. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

Conclusion . 

ND  now,  in  closing  this  little  volume  on  vegetables  and 
trees,  their  management  and  diseases,  I  wish  to  say 
that  I  am  well  aware  that  it  invites  and  will  receive 
contempt  from  some,  and  perhaps  sharp  criticism  from 
others.  When,  years  ago,  I  first  announced  the  facts  in 
regard  to  close  root-pruning,  quite  a  number  of  horticultur- 
ists assailed  me  promptly,  both  in  Texas  and  other  states, 
and  by  argument  proved  conclusively  to  their  own  satisfac- 
tion that  the  thing  could  not  be  true — and  many,  doubtless, 
think  so  yet.  But  the  root-pruned  tree  has  come  at  last,  and 
to  stay.  Still,  so  slow,  indeed,  are  men  to  lay  aside  old 
prejudices  and  adopt  new  methods,  that  years  may  pass 
before  the  hoary  old  fallacies  of  big  holes,  deep  prepara- 
tion, fall  and  winter  plowing  and  pruning,  as  well  as  expen- 
sive summer  cultivation,  are  laid  away  to  rest  in  the  museum 
of  antiquated  and  mistaken  ideas,  alongside  the  notion  that 
the  sun  went  around  the  world.  They  have  caused  not  only 
a  waste  of  much  money  but  a  world  of  useless  labor,  as  well 
as  bitter  disappointment  and  blighted  hopes,  and  to-day,  on 
hill  and  in  dale,  scattered  everywhere,  stunted,  sickly  and 
dying  fruit  trees  bear  evidence  of  their  deadly  work.  How- 
ever, though  reform  has  always  been  slow,  and  though  the  Pil- 
grim Progress  has  ever  had  to  travel  rough  and  thorny  paths, 
wade  through  the  mire  of  captious  criticism,  climb  with 
toiling  step  and  slow  the  steep  and  rugged  sides  of  great 
Mountain  Doubt,  and  ever  and  anon  strike  down  with  the  club 
of  Fact  the  lusty  giants  Conservatism  and  Authority  that  block 
his  way — yet  in  the  end  he  always  gets  there  just  the  same, 
and  waves  his  banner  from  the  mountain  top.  And  so,  some 
time  in  the  coming  century,  the  mowing  machine  will  replace 
the  cultivator  and  the  plow.  Our  close  root-pruned  trees 

(209) 


210  THE      NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

will  stand  on  well-kept  lawns,  or  in  pastured  lots,  where, 
yearly  fed  with  proper  food  and  sprayed,  their  sturdy  limbs, 
clothed  with  dark  foliage  of  healthy  green,  will  bend  beneath 
their  loads  of  perfect  fruit,  while  yellows,  blight,  root-tumor 
and  black-knot  will  be  but  ugly  recollections  of  the  past. 
That  with  rational,  natural  treatment  all  this  is  possible,  will 
be  seen  from  the  two  following  quotations  from  the  January 
issue  of  Green' s  Fruit- Grower,  published  in  the  heart  of  the 
great  fruit  belt  of  Western  New  York.  Mr.  L.  B.  Pierce, 
writing  of  the  "Summer  Rambo"  apple,  says: 

We  have  a  tree  standing  over  the  south  kitchen  door  that  is  about 
twenty  years  old,  from  a  root-graft,  and  spreads  forty  feet,  and  is 
thirty  feet  high.  Last  year  it  was  the  only  one  on  the  place  that 
bore  apples  smooth  and  large  enough  to  use.  This  tree  bore  about 
three  bushels,  and  furnished  pie  timber  for  about  two  months.  The 
entire  apple  crop  on  four  hundred  other  trees  [presumably  long- 
rooted,  etc. — H.  M.  s.]  was  less  than  a  bushel.  This  year  this  tree 
is  bending  beneath  its  load  of  fruit,  and  about  the  middle  of  August 
I  was  obliged  to  pick  a  part  to  relieve  the  burden.  The  apples  were 
at  that  date  as  large  as  Baldwins  and  partially  colored,  and  sold 
readily  at  twenty  cents  a  peck.  The  tree  should  be  planted  in  a 
sheltered  place  and  the  ground  strewed  with  straw,  as  the  apples 
ripen  gradually,  and,  being  large  and  heavy,  drop  and  bruise. 

The  editor,  Mr.  Chas.  E.  Green,  in  another  place,  writes: 

I  know  of  a  Baldwin  apple  tree  located  at  the  rear  of  the  kitchen, 
near  the  house  drain,  where  its  roots  received  weekly  ablutions  from 
the  wash  tubs.  I  do  not  dare  to  state  the  annual  yield  of  this  tree, 
for  it  was  beyond  belief  [probably  another  root-graft  or  seedling — 
H.  M.  s.].  I  have  two  apple  trees  in  Rochester  near  an  old  hen-house, 
on  the  rich  soil  of  which  the  roots  feed  ;  also  two  located  near  my 
stable.  These  trees  seldom  fail  to  bear  crops  of  fine  fruit,  though 
the  soil  is  not  cultivated. 

Presumably  all  the  latter  trees  were  seedlings,  as  people 
do  not  set  two  apple  trees  in  a  place  as  were  those  near  the 
hen-house — or  usually  plant  two  near  a  stable.  I  leave  these 
nuts  for  my  long  root,  big  hole,  deep  plowing,  summer  culti- 
vating readers  to  crack. 

Duplicates  of  such  root-graft  or  seedling  trees  are  stand- 
ing all  over  the  country.  Will  not  some  advocate  of  the 
above-named  methods  explain  fully,  and  give  us  the  whys 
and  wherefores  of  the  strange  fact  that  everywhere,  the  world 
over,  fruit  trees  show  such  partiality  for  houses? 


CONCLUSION.  211 

I  have  introduced  the  accompanying  cut  (page  212)  of  a 
one-year  apple  tree,  grown  from  a  root-graft  last  season,  and 
although  the  engraving  from  the  photograph  shows  only  a 
small  portion  of  the  roots,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are  all 
strong  and  perpendicular,  and  probably  penetrated  in  one 
season  deeper  than  the  top  is  high.  But  are  there  any  other 
causes  for  the  phenomenal  success  of  this  representative 
apple  tree,  standing  on  hard,  uncultivated  ground  ?  I  will 
here  quote  an  extract  from  a  critic  of  mine  in  Texas  Farm  and 
Ranch,  who  undertook  to  answer  this  question,  and  suggests 
that,  first,  "the  soil  near  a  dwelling  is  likely  to  be  rich,  deep 
and  full  of  vegetable  matter;"  and  secondly,  that  "the  noise, 
smoke  and  smell  of  a  human  habitation  tend  to  drive  harmful 
insects  from  nearby  fruit  trees."  Possibly  some  one  may  add 
that  the  slops  and  wash-water  from  the  kitchen  played  an  im- 
portant part.  As  to  the  first  statement,  is  it  a  fact  that  such 
was  likely  true?  I  see  no  reason  why,  but  if  so,  what  part 
would  so  small  and  circumscribed  an  area  play  in  developing 
the  last  full  crop  on  a  tree  with  a  forty-feet  diameter  of  head 
and  lateral  feeding  roots,  certainly  covering,  at  a  small  esti- 
mate, one  hundred  feet  in  diameter?  I  have  traced  oak  roots, 
in  a  field  near  a  wood,  that  far  in  a  single  direction,  and 
found  them  still  travelling.  His  second  statement  is  abso- 
lutely unfounded  in  fact,  for  we  all  know  that  screens  are 
everywhere  a  necessity  to  keep  out  the  swarms  of  beetles, 
candle-bugs  and  moths  of  every  kind  that,  drawn  by  the  lights, 
flock  to  our  houses  after  dark.  The  live  oaks  here  in  Galves- 
ton  are  much  worse  eaten  by  the  canker  worms  near  the 
electric  lights  than  farther  away.  Thirdly,  as  to  the  wash- 
water  and  kitchen  slops,  in  this  day  of  cleanliness  and  sewer 
drains,  it  is  hardly  likely  that  Mr.  Pierce  allows  such  things 
to  be  thrown  around  his  house,  and  if  he  did,  as  the  tree  stood 
at  the  back  door,  its  feeding  roots  were  far  removed,  and 
V/ould  receive  small  benefit  from  such  applications  near  the 
trunk. 

But  let  us  examine  a  little  farther  into  the  facts  concern- 
ing this  apple  tree.  It  is  not  only  of  remarkable  size  for  its 
age  and  neglect,  but  seems  ordinarily  to  bear  enormous  crops, 


212 


THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 


ROOT- GRAFT — NATURAL  SIZE. 


A  PI'LE   TREE   ONE    YEAR    OLD,    FROM 
ROOT-GRAFT. 


CONCLUSION. 


2I3 


and  the  fruit,  though  immature  and  only  partially  colored, 
was,  without  thinning,  as  "large  as  Baldwins,"  and  Mr.  Pierce 
suggests  a  sheltered  place  to  protect  its  wonderful  crops,  and 
also  a  mulch  of  straw  to  save  the  "large  and  heavy  apples" 
from  bruising  when  they  fall.  Remembering  that  results 
come  only  from  adequate  causes,  and  not  by  chance,  is  there 
any  adequate  cause  for  the  regular  and  abundant  crops  on 
this  tree,  except  that  it  had  struck  its  several  tap-roots,  as 
shown  in  the  cut  (page  212),  deep  down  to  permanent  moist- 
ure, and  that  its  surface  roots  were  left  entirely  undisturbed  ? 
I  earnestly  invite  a  calm,  unprejudiced  consideration  of 
the  various  facts  and  suggestions  contained  in  this  little 
book,  which,  though  opposed  to  the  current  opinion  sof  the 
day,  are  founded  on  the  bed-rock  of  nature's  teachings. 
There  is  not  a  single  really  important  operation  of  our 
modern  orchards,  starting  with  the  form  of  tree,  character  of 
ground  preparation,  planting  of  the  tree,  and  its  after-treat- 
ment, all  through  its  poor,  persecuted  life,  that  is  not  a  plain 
violation  of  nature's  methods,  by  which  she  grows  trees  so 
far  superior  to  ours  that  any  but  a  blind  man  must  stand 
abashed  at  the  comparison. 


APPENDIX. 

More  Light  from  Experience. 

SINCE  the  foregoing  went  to  press  I  have  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  conversing  with  a  friend  of  Mr.  J.  H.  Hale  who 
had  just  returned  from  a  visit  to  Mr.  Hale's  famous  close 
root-pruned  Georgia  peach  orchard,  which  last  (the  third) 
year  bore  an  enormous  crop,  and  set  as  fine  a  one  the  present 
season.  But  the  ever-watchful  curculio  was  on  hand,  and, 
after  the  peaches  that  were  stung  had  dropped  or  had  been 
removed  by  hand  and  destroyed,  the  actual  yield  from  one 
hundred  thousand  trees  was  only  fifty-two  car  loads  of  fruit, 
or  a  half-bushel  per  tree  at  five  hundred  crates  to  the  car.  An 
orchard  of  eleven  hundred  acres  near  by,  from  which  no 
affected  fruit  was  destroyed,  gave  a  return  of  only  eighteen 
car  loads.  Mr.  Hale  waged  a  vigorous  war  from  the  start, 
going  over  his  orchard  repeatedly,  picking  up  the  fallen  fruit, 
and  taking  from  the  trees  that  which  showed  signs  of  disease. 
He  has  also  kept  the  entire  orchard  continually  cultivated, 
with  the  determination  to  allow  the  curculio  no  food  when 
they  first  hatch  out,  and  thus,  if  possible,  to  exterminate 
them.  But  I  fear  this  Napoleon  of  horticulture  will  meet  his 
Waterloo  in  Georgia.  Such  absolutely  clean  culture  will  not 
only  be  enormously  expensive,  but  actually  impracticable  in 
many  seasons.  Let  a  continued  rainy  spell  of  several  weeks 
occur,  and  the  grass  will  get  too  large  to  handle  with  the  cul- 
tivator, and  must  be  plowed  ;  and  nine  hundred  acres  means 
a  great  deal  of  work  and  expense.  How  much  more  econom- 
ical to  put  the  whole  down  to  sod,  and  pasture  with  sheep, 
or  hogs  with  rings  in  their  noses  to  prevent  rooting,  and  thus 
save  all  labor  except  an  occasional  mowing  of  weeds.  The 
animals  would  eat  the  fallen  fruit,  as  well  as  keep  the  grass 
down,  and  Mr.  Hale  could  raise  mutton,  wool  or  pork  as  well 

(214) 


MORE      LIGHT     FROM     EXPERIENCE.  215 

as  peaches,  and  much  finer  ones  from  those  deeply  rooted 
trees,  with  their  surface  roots  undisturbed,  than  he  will  ever 
grow  with  all  his  expensive  cultivation.  In  fact,  no  other 
kind  of  large  commercial  peach  growing  can  now  be  made  to 
pay.  Even  were  spraying  a  complete  success,  the  expense 
of  it  and  of  clean  culture,  with  other  outlays,  and  the  fre- 
quent failures  from  frost,  superinduced  by  the  destruction  of 
surface  roots,  thus  weakening  the  vitality  of  the  trees  at  the 
time  of  setting,  will  leave  little  or  no  profit.  The  only  labor 
really  necessary  in  a  peach  orchard,  as  outlined  above,  ex- 
cept gathering  the  fruit,  would  be  that  of  shortening-in  the 
ends  of  all  shoots  after  the  fruit  was  as  large  as  marbles,  if 
the  trees  were  overloaded,  and  giving  an  annual  free  ap- 
plication of  fertilizer  when  growth  starts  in  the  spring.  I 
would  here  repeat  that  I  know  of  peach  trees  from  seed,  now 
fourteen  years  old,  in  close  mowed  Bermuda  sod,  that  are  in 
perfect  health,  and  bear  annual  crops  of  fine  fruit,  while  cul- 
tivated trees  of  that  age  can  nowhere  be  found  here. 

But  while  the  curculio  and  the  frost  make  the  southern 
peach  grower's  life  a  burden,  the  northern  grower  is  not  with- 
out his  troubles.  I  append  an  extract  from  the  July  3Oth 
issue  of  Cultivator  and  Country  Gentleman : 

PEACHES  IN  DELAWARE. — The  article  reprinted  by  you  July  23, 
p.  575,  from  a  New  York  paper,  in  regard  to  "Delaware  peaches," 
savors  of  an  effort  by  interested  parties  to  bear  down  the  prices  of 
that  fruit.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  winter  and  spring  were  favorable  to 
the  production  of  a  good  peach  crop,  and  that  the  orchards  set  un- 
usually full  is  also  true  ;  but  that  potent  causes  have  intervened  to 
curtail  the  early  promise  of  a  phenomenal  yield  is  also  true.  In  a 
large  measure  the  "June  drop"  has  decimated  the  crop,  and  much 
more  than  forstalled  any  necessity  of  thinning  ;  and  within  the  past 
six  weeks  the  disease  known  as  the  "  yellows  "  has  invaded  orchards 
heretofore  exempt  from  its  ravages,  and  curtailed  the  crop  to  the 
extent  of  one-quarter  or  one-third  of  what  was  promised.  Heretofore 
the  disease  has  been  rather  confined  to  the  northern  part  of  the 
state,  where  the  production  of  peaches  has  become  practically  a 
nullity  ;  but  this  season  it  has  made  gigantic  strides  southward,  and 
the  "center  of  the  peach  belt  "  is  only  the  center  of  the  region  remain- 
ing comparatively  unaffected  by  this  plague.  With  the  failure  of  the 
Jersey  crop  and  that  of  the  further  north  regions,  there  is  no  reason 
to  believe  there  will  be  anywhere  near  enough  to  glut  the  market, 
and  no  reason  for  crying  down  prices.  The  question  of  peach  rais- 
ing on  this  peninsula  is  only  a  question  as  to  whether  the  peach  "  yel- 


2l6  THE     NEW     HORTICULTURE. 

lows  "  will  ever  be  brought  under  control,  and  stamped  out.  If  it  is 
not,  the  industry  is  doomed — for  orchards  are  being  destroyed  this 
year  by  its  ravages  as  never  before  ;  and  the  yield,  instead  of  being 
9,000,000  baskets,  will  not  be  50  per  cent,  of  it. — L.  M.,  Kent  Co.,, 
Del.)  July  24,  1896. 

Here  we  find  the  " yellows"  and  the  "June  drop  "  put- 
ting in  their  work  on  the  long-rooted  and  cultivated  trees. 
But  did  anybody  ever  hear  of  "yellows"  or  the  "June  drop" 
bothering  seedling  peach  trees  around  the  house,  in  the 
chicken  yard,  in  the  fence  corners,  or  any  place  where  the 
plow  could  not  reach  them?  In  fact,  do  not  even  the  cur- 
culio  give  such  trees  the  go-by?  As  to  "yellows,"  deep 
preparation  of  the  ground,  making  a  boggy  root-bed,  surface- 
rooted  trees,  continual  yearly  or  even  more  frequent  cutting 
of  the  roots,  winter  or  early  spring  pruning,  fertilizing  and 
plowing,  resulting  in  a  premature  movement  of  the  sap  and 
subsequent  freezing,  will  easily  account  for  that  disease. 
But  it  will  disappear  as  soon  as  growers  treat  their  trees 
rationally,  just  as  pear  and  apple  blight  will.  I  have  proved 
that  blight  is  not  contagious,  and  that  healthy  trees  cannot 
be  inoculated  with  it,  and  have  no  doubt  that  it  will  not  only 
be  equally  impossible  to  communicate  "yellows"  that  way  to 
a  close  root-pruned  peach  tree  in  sod  or  firm  ground,  but  that 
young  trees  already  affected,  if  thus  set  and  treated,  and 
top-dressed  freely  with  potash,  will  recover  at  once.  Those, 
and  doubtless  all  bacterial  tree  diseases,  are  the  effect  of 
wrong  treatment,  resulting  in  favorable  conditions  for  their 
development,  as  shown  in  the  chapters  on  blight. 


THE     END. 


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LIBRARY,  COLLEGE  OP  AGRICULTURE,  DAVIS 
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Book  Slip-10m-8,'49(B5851s4)458 


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The  new  he rtl culture 


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